Book  No.  XV\3.^... 

rara  Free  Public  Librar 


LIBRARY  HOURS: 

lAYS,  Except  legal  Holidays— 9  a.  m.  to  9  p.  m. 
5-2  to  5  p.  m. 
.esident  of  Santa  Barbara  above  the  age  of  ten  years,   who  shall  ha' 
prescribed  application  card  and  furnished  an  acceptable  guarantf 
il  be  entitled  to  borrow  books  from  the  Library  for  home  use. 
Booics  may  be  retained  fourteen  days  unless  otherwise  specified   on  their  da 
slip.    Seven  day  books  are  not  renewable;  fourteen  day  books  may  be  renew( 
once,  except  when  in  demand,  or  on  request,  may  be  stamped  for  twenty-eight  day 
In  every  case  (^late  when  due  js  stamped  plainly  on  date  slip. 
Books  overdue  are  subject  to  a  fine  of  five  cents  a  day,   including  Sunda 
and  holidays. 

Failure  to  pay  fine  or  defacement  and  mutilation  of  books  will  exclude  be 
rower  from  the  privileges  of  the  Library.  All  injuries  to  books  beyond  reasO> 
able  wear,  and  all  losses  shall  be  made  good  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Libraria 
by  the  person  liable. 

Borrowers  must  not  lend  their  books  to  any  one  not  a  member  of  the  san 
household.    No  books  will  be  exchanged  on  day  of  issue. 

Suggestions  for  making  the  Library  more  useful  are  invited. 

"The  noblest  motive  is  the  public  good."    Virgil. 


iIBRARY  FUND 


n 


's; 


'/. 


WITHDRAWN 

NTA  BAR.iARA  PUBLIC  LIBRARY 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2008  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.arcliive.org/details/businessofwarOOmarc     I 


THE   BUSINESS  OF  WAR 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 


THE  REBIRTH 

OF  RUSSIA         Cloth,  Net,  $1.25 

THE  WAR  AFTER 

THE  WAR  Cloth,  Net,  $1.25 

LEONARD  WOOD: 

PROPHET  OF  PREPAREDNESS 

Cloth,  Net,  75  cents 


Photograph   by  Paul   Laib   from   a  Painting, 


^      /    ?    M  A.1  i,-^  :  ,-. 


"^'^  'vy 


/THE  BUSINESS 
OF  WAR 


BY 

ISAAC  F.  MARCOSSON 

AUTHOR  OF 
"the   rebirth  of   RUSSIA," 

"the  war  after  the  war," 
'leonard  wood,  prophet  of  preparedness,' 

ETC 


WITH  SIXTEEN  ILLUSTRATIONS 
FROM  PHOTOGRAPHS 


NEWYORK:  JOHN  LANE  COMPANY 

LONDON:    JOHN    LANE,  THE   BODLEY   HEAD 
MCMXVIII 


Copyright,  1917-1918,  by  The  Curtis  Ptiblishino  Company 
Copyright,  1917,  by  The  Ridgway  Company 


Copyright,  1917, 
By  JOHN  LANE  COMPANY 


Press  of 

J.  J.  Little  &  Ives  Company 

New  York,  U.  S.  A. 


TO 

THE  BRITISH  ARMIES  EVERYWHERE 

BUT  TO  THOSE  HEROIC  LEGIONS  IN  FRANCE  IN  PARTICULAR 

THE  AUTHOR  DEDICATES 
THIS  BOOK  "^ 
IN  UNFORGETTABLE  REMEMBRANCE  OF  THEIR 
COURAGE  AND  COMRADESHIP 


FOREWORD 


In  the  glamour  of  battle  heroism  the  world  loses 
sight  of  the  mechanics  of  war.  It  is  more  thrilling 
to  have  an  emotion  about  a  forlorn  trench  hope  led 
to  victory  than  to  hear  about  a  supply  column  that 
reached  the  front  under  a  storm  of  shells.  Yet  the 
courage  of  the  teamsters  who  face  death  with  only 
the  reins  in  their  hands  is  fit  to  rank  with  the 
valour  of  the  fighting  men  armed  with  guns. 

War  has  become  a  business.  It  is  the  world's 
supreme  task  at  this  moment.  "Business  as  usual" 
has  gone  into  the  scrap  heap  along  with  many 
other  illusions  that  clogged  effort  and  begot  a  costly 
optimism  in  the  early  days  of  the  conflict.  The 
one  definite  work  of  civilization  is  to  win  the  war. 
The  path  to  victory  is  through  organization. 

No  military  establishment  presents  such  a  pic- 
ture of  close-knit  endeavour  as  the  British  Army. 
The  immortal  First  Seven  Divisions  who  dashed  to 
the  relief  of  Belgium  and  laid  the  first  Anglo-Saxon 
sacrifice  on  the  Altar  of  Freedom  were  the  nucleus 
of  the  mighty  host  on  which  the  sun  never  sets 
to-day.  In  less  than  three  years  Britain  has  created 
an   institution   out   of   cheerful    service   that   has 


8  FOREWORD 


blocked  the  German  machine  that  was  forty  years 
in  brutal  building.  It  is  the  precedent  for  our  own 
gallant  legions  now  in  the  making. 

No  phase  of  the  British  Army  is  more  complete 
in  its  system  than  Supply  and  Transport.  By  the 
natural  circumstance  which  always  subordinates  the 
prosaic  to  the  spectacular  it  is  the  least-known.  Its 
heroes  are  unsung:  its  deeds  are  not  often  re- 
warded. Yet  the  Army  Service  Corps  is  the  un- 
complaining beast  of  burden  that  carries  on  its  back 
the  wherewithal  to  live  and  fight.  Its  Victoria 
Cross  is  the  consciousness  of  high  and  incessant 
devotion. 

In  former  experiences  with  the  British  Armies  in 
France  I  have  seen  the  Supply  and  Transport  only 
as  a  necessary  incident  in  the  life  and  death  struggle 
that  raged  from  the  Channel  to  the  Somme.  Lately 
however  I  made  a  special  journey  to  study  it  at 
first  hand.  I  have  talked  with  its  organizers  and 
its  doers :  I  have  followed  the  food  and  equipment 
from  the  time  it  was  contracted  for  until  they 
reached  the  men  in  the  firing  line. 

In  my  work  I  have  been  one  of  the  historians  of 
so-called  Big  Business :  in  this  war  I  have  been  with 
the  five  seasoned  Allied  Armies  and  also  with  the 
American  Expeditionary  Force  in  France.  It  is  no 
deprecation  of  any  of  them  to  say  that  the  British 
organization  for  the  supply  of  its  fighting  men  is 
in  many  respects  the  most  amazing  business  insti- 
tution  that   I   have  yet   seen.     At   a   time  when 


FOREWORD 


America  is  preparing  to  play  her  part  in  the  su- 
preme drama  an  intimate  revelation  of  British 
methods — the  methods,  it  is  well  to  remember,  upon 
which  the  whole  success  of  our  cause  depends — ■ 
may  be  helpful  to  soldier  and  civilian  alike.  For 
no  man  can  know  them  without  realising  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  task  that  lies  before  our  army  abroad. 

Britain's  way  has  been  the  scientific  way.  She 
has  made  the  business  of  war  the  prelude  to  an 
orderly,  efficient  and  constructive  peace.  The  War 
has  become  an  immense  training  school  for  The 
War  After  the  War. 

I.  F.  M. 

New  York,  February,  1918. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I.  War  and  Business  .... 

II.  Army  Demand  and  Supply 

III.  Feeding  the  Fighting  Millions 

IV.  From  Ship  to  Trench        .     . 
V.  The  Miracle  of  Transport    . 

VI.  The  Motor  Under  Fire    .     . 

VII.  The  Salvage  of  Battle    .     . 

VIII.  The  Army  Food  Drive      .     . 

IX.  The  Wares  of  War      .     .     . 

X.  A  Visit  to  Sir  Douglas  Haig 

XI.  England's  War  Efficiency  Engineer 

XII.  Northcliffe — Insurgent 


PAGE 

45 

68 

90 

121 

150 
168 
200 
216 
229 
258 
286 


IX 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Lieut.  General  Sir  John  S.  Cowans,  K.C.B.  .  Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

Andrew  Weir 26 

Major  General  A.  R.  Crofton  Atkins  ....  32 

A  Comer  in  a  Supply  Reserve  Depot  in  England  60 

Major  General  E.  E.  Carter 72 

A  Typical  Scene  on  a  Road  in  Northern  France  .  76 

Soldiers  Drawing  Rations  at  the  Front     ...  82 

Motor  Lorries  Laden  with  Food 108 

Cooking  Tommy's  Food  Under  Fire    .     .     .     .  112 

Colonel  C.  M.  Ryan  and  the  Author  .     .     .     .  118 

Major  General  W.  G.  B.  Boyce 126 

One  of  the  Many  Reminders  that  War  is  not  all 
Waste 198 

A  Forest  of  Shells 222 

Field  Marshal  Sir  Douglas  Haig 230 

Sir  Eric  Geddes 258 

The  Viscoimt  Northcliffe 286 


n 


THE   BUSINESS  OF  WAR 


mm 


I — War  and  Business 


ABROAD-SHOULDERED,  deep-chested  man, 
with  keen  blue  eyes  and  an  unyielding  jaw, 
the  breast  of  his  khaki  tunic  ablaze  with 
service  and  order  ribbons,  sits  at  a  flat-topped 
desk  in  the  War  Office  in  London  with  his  finger 
on  the  pulse  of  the  most  remarkable  business  ma- 
chine in  the  world.  Before  him  each  morning  is 
laid  a  sheet  of  paper  less  than  a  foot  square  on 
which  is  typed  the  feeding  strength  of  all  the  Brit- 
ish Armies — man  and  beast — in  every  theatre  of 
war  together  with  the  precise  quantity  of  food,  fuel 
and  forage  available  for  them.  On  another  sheet 
is  a  compact  summary  of  all  supplies  contracted  for 
or  speeding  on  ships  and  trains  towards  the  zones  of 
distribution  and  consumption.  At  a  glance  there- 
fore he  can  appraise  the  situation  on  which  victory 
in  the  field  stands  or  falls. 

Although  aloof  from  combat  this  man  controls 
+he  arteries  through  which  pulses  the  very  life  blood 
of  war,  for  he  is  Lieutenant  General  Sir  John  S. 
Cowans,  K.  C.  B.,  Quartermaster  General  to  all  his 
Britannic  Majesty's  Forces.  He  feeds,  clothes  and 
supplies  a  khakied  host  equal  to  the  population  of 
Greater  New  York ;  under  his  command  are  enough 
horses  and  mules  to  operate  all  the  farms  in  Iowa. 
He  renews  and  keeps  going  a  fleet  of  mechanical 

17 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 


transport  that  would  duplicate  more  than  one-sixth 
of  all  the  commercial  motor  vehicles  in  use  in  the 
United  States.  In  a  word,  he  is  Managing  Director 
of  one  vast  branch  of  the  stupendous  Business  of 
War. 

There  are  dozens  of  British  Generals  better 
known  to  the  average  man  in  England  than  General 
Cowans,  but  none,  not  even  Field  Marshal  Sir 
Douglas  Haig  himself,  has  a  more  important  task. 
Without  the  "Q.  M.  G."— as  the  Quartermaster 
General  is  commonly  known — there  would  be  no  big 
offensives  in  Flanders,  Egypt  or  Mesopotamia — in- 
deed, no  advance  anywhere  along  the  bristling  Brit- 
ish battle  line  that  stretches  from  the  English  Chan- 
nel to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  His  work 
is  the  work  preservative  of  war.  About  it  is  no 
glamor  of  spectacular  performance;  no  thrill  of 
battle  heroism.  It  unfolds  no  panorama  of  grim 
and  glorious  deed.  But  it  furnishes  the  real  fuel 
of  war;  it  stokes  the  mighty  human  furnace  that 
forges  the  Hammer  of  the  Hun. 

Unsung  and  often  unrewarded  by  the  honours 
that  go  to  troops  of  the  line,  the  Army  Service 
Corps,  which  mans  the  legions  of  Supply  and  Trans- 
port, can  fight  as  well  as  feed.  It  takes  a  higher  cour- 
age to  drive  a  motor  truck  where  shells  are  falling 
than  to  operate  a  machine  gun  under  fire.  The 
record  of  the  Army  behind  the  Army  is  a  continu- 
ous narrative  of  unflinching  bravery  shot  through 
with  a  valour  that  is  full  brother  to  the  efficiency  of 


WAR  AND  BUSINESS  19 

the  Corps.  A  squadron  of  motor  trucks  laden  with 
food  charged  and  routed  a  troop  of  German  Uhlans 
in  the  retreat  from  Mons;  at  the  first  battle  of 
Ypres  cooks,  orderlies,  farriers,  chauffeurs  and 
even  battalion  clerks  swelled  the  long  thin  line  of 
heroes  that  checked  the  Kaiser's  march  to  the  sea. 

There  has  never  been  a  day  since  the  immortal 
First  Seven  Divisions  dashed  to  the  relief  of  Bel- 
gium that  Thomas  Atkins  has  missed  a  day's  ra- 
tions. He  has  had  them  served  hot  and  plentiful 
amid  all  the  stress  and  storm  of  flying  death.  Day 
and  night,  up  and  down  the  hell-swept  roads  and 
regardless  of  the  terrors  that  lurked  in  land  and 
sky,  the  food  has  always  come  up.  No  matter  how 
the  tides  of  battle  ebb  or  flow,  man  and  beast  must 
be  fed.  Break  the  lines  of  food  communication  and 
all  is  lost. 

But  this  immense  operation  is  not  without  a  ro- 
mance all  its  own.  The  endless  chain  of  army  sup- 
ply, geared  as  it  is  to  the  most  incessant  and  un- 
failing of  all  demands — the  appetite — has  annexed 
the  whole  world  of  output.  It  reaches  to  the  waving 
wheat  domain  of  the  Argentine,  to  the  fleecy  cotton 
belt  of  our  own  South,  to  the  rolling  oat  realm  of 
Canada,  to  the  dripping  oil  fields  of  Burmah,  Mex- 
ico and  California.  Into  its  hungry  channels  flow 
the  products  of  the  vats  and  tanks  of  Chicago's 
Packingtown;  the  benches  and  mills  of  New  Eng- 
land; the  canneries  of  Australia.  All  lands  and  all 
flocks  are  stripped  for  its  needs.     It  has  recruited 


20  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

a  host  of  workers  as  huge  as  the  battHng  armies 
it  sustains,  to  the  insatiate  end  that  the  Wheels  of 
War  be  kept  whirling. 

While  it  involves  millions  of  men,  requires  an 
expenditure  of  billions  of  dollars,  taps  the  entire 
universe  and  provides  a  continuous  procession  of 
supplies,  it  is  dominated  by  one  man  who  can  sit  at 
a  desk  in  a  far-away  office,  the  absolute  centralisa- 
tion of  the  whole  ramified  activity.  How  is  it  pos- 
sible when  the  seven  seas  have  become  the  grave- 
yards of  transport;  when  human  life  is  as  a  candle 
in  the  wind;  when  half  of  mankind  is  bent  upon 
destruction  ? 

The  answer  is  easy.  It  all  results  from  the  fact 
that  the  Business  of  War  as  represented  by  the  Sup- 
ply and  Transport  of  the  British  armies  is  noth- 
ing more  or  less  than  a  colossal  piece  of  merchan- 
dising that  has  become  a  triumph  or  standardisa- 
tion. What  scientific  efficiency  experts  have 
preached  to  American  factory  owners  for  applica- 
tion to  the  arts  and  crafts  of  peaceful  pursuit  has 
here  reached  the  last  degree  of  practical  interpreta- 
tion for  the  maintenance  of  the  War  of  Wars.  It 
expresses  the  genius  of  organisation  of  a  hundred* 
United  States  Steel  Corporations,  Standard  Oil 
Companies  and  International  Harvester  Companies 
rolled  into  one.  It  is  a  super  corporation,  knit  by 
iron  discipline,  fed  by  fire  and  driven  by  an  energy 
that  would  kindle  and  keep  an  Empire.    Apply  it  to 


WAR  AND  BUSINESS  21 


a  purely  commercial  enterprise  and  it  would  yield 
a  well-nigh  fabulous  profit. 

Yet  the  men  who  operate  it  are  in  the  main  soldiers 
who  grub  at  prosaic  desks,  battling  each  day  with 
questions  of  raw  materials,  overhead  costs,  produc- 
tion, transportation  and  distribution.  Although  un- 
limited financial  credit  is  behind  them  they  must  ac- 
count for  every  dollar  they  spend.  In  providing 
for  the  battlefields  of  war  they  parallel  nearly  every 
problem  of  the  battlefields  of  business.  War,  as 
waged  to-day,  is  merely  bitter  and  bloody  competi- 
tion between  nations.  In  the  operations  of  an  army 
in  the  field  you  have,  for  example,  the  working  out, 
with  men  and  guns,  of  the  most  difficult  and  costly 
of  all  industrial  items — Distribution.  So,  too,  with 
Supply  and  Transport,  which  is  just  another  kind 
of  Distribution  made  possible  by  invoking  every 
rule  of  the  business  game. 

Study  the  system  and  you  will  find  the  whole 
armament  of  scientific  trade  war-fare.  You  will 
encounter  charts  and  diagrams  of  office  and  staff 
organisation  that  will  apply  to  any  money-making 
establishment  regardless  of  output.  In  the  "follow- 
up"  of  army  supplies  you  will  see  that  every  tin  of 
jam  is  traced  to  the  ultimate  fighting  consumer. 
You  will  discover  processes  of  economy  that  "turn 
over"  John  Bull's  taxes  half  a  dozen  times  although 
originally  intended  for  a  single  outlay.  You  will 
meet  with  battle  salvage  that  redeems  the  debris  of 
war  ranging  from  the  nails  in  a  timber  trench  sup- 


22  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

port  to  a  twelve-inch  gun.  Under  this  drive  for  v^ar 
commodities  new  industries  have  been  created  and 
old  ones  revived.  A  gigantic  mechanism  has  been 
set  in  motion  that,  while  dedicated  to  war,  is  pav- 
ing the  way  for  a  more  efficient,  a  more  orderly 
and  a  more  economical  peace. 

Victory  in  the  war  may  or  may  not  lie  in  the 
kitchen,  but  no  one  can  deny  that  it  is  very  likely 
to  perch  on  the  banners  of  the  best-fed  armies. 
From  Darius  to  Napoleon  the  empty  stomach  has 
been  first  aid  to  defeat.  "Many  can  lead  troops;  I 
can  feed  them,"  was  one  of  Wellington's  proudest 
boasts. 

It  was  a  hard  job  to  feed  soldiers  when  they  were 
numbered  by  tens  of  thousands;  it  is  infinitely  more 
difficult  now  that  they  are  reckoned  in  units  of 
millions.  There  was  a  time  when  invading  armies 
lived  on  the  lands  they  occupied.  Fancy  the  fate 
of  Haig's  hosts  if  they  tried  to  subsist  upon  Flan- 
ders and  Northern  France!  But  War,  like  Life,  is 
a  constant  evolution.  Hence  the  transition  from 
plunder  to  preparedness;  from  the  era  of  grafting 
sutler  and  unscrupulous  army  contractor  to  the 
present  day  procedure  that  has  made  a  perfect  art 
of  the  commissariat. 

Clearly  to  understand  the  system  of  Supply  and 
Transport  ("S.  and  T."  as  they  call  it  in  the  army), 
you  must  first  get  the  active  army  organisation 
fixed  in  your  mind.  There  are  two  grand  divisions. 
One  is  Operations,  which  has  solely  to  do  with 


WAR  AND  BUSINESS  23 


strateg  fighting.     It  is  controlled  by  the  Im- 

perial whose  Chief  is  General  Sir  William 

Robert  [ts  tools  are  men  and  guns. 

The  is  Administration,  which  is  charged 

with  the  task  of  keeping  these  men,  their  guns  and 
their  transport  fed,  fueled  and  equipped.  At  the 
head  is  the  Quartermaster  General.  He  not  only 
provides  what  the  men  and  horses  eat  but  purveys 
the  whole  mechanical  transport.  He  likewise  fur- 
nishes all  the  wood,  coal,  disinfectants  and  medical 
comforts  needed  by  the  armies. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  supplies — essential  arti- 
cles, like  tinned  and  preserved  meat,  bread,  biscuits, 
flour,  jam,  tea,  sugar,  butter,  bacon  and  condensed 
milk  and  non-essentials  like  fresh  meat  and  veg- 
etables. 

The  number  of  supply  items  for  the  British  army 
has  grown  to  an  almost  incredible  extent.  In  the 
Crimean  War  only  three  articles — flour,  meat  and 
vegetables — were  issued  to  the  troops.  In  the  Boer 
War  there  was  an  increase  to  forty-five.  To-day 
the  Quartermaster  General  has  exactly  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  on  his  list! 

If  the  Quartermaster  General's  work  was  con- 
fined to  subsistence  and  fuel  for  man,  beast  and 
vehicle  his  labours  would  be  comparatively  easy. 
But  linked  with  his  task  is  the  sponsorship  of  what 
is  termed  Ordnance  and  Equipment  Stores.  To  the 
ordinary  mind  the  word  Ordnance  simply  means 
guns  of  all  kinds.    As  a  matter  of  fact  in  the  Brit- 


24  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 


ish  Army  the  phrase  Ordnance  Stores  covers  nearly 
eight  thousand  items  ranging  from  an  ax<j  to  a  mess 
tent  that  will  shelter  a  circus.  The  principal  stores, 
however,  are  camp  equipment,  clothing,  shoes,  un- 
derwear, blankets,  shirts,  harness,  saddlery,  trench 
tools,  oils,  paints,  chemicals,  iron  mongery,  furni- 
ture of  all  kinds,  huts  and  the  materials  for  the  re- 
pair of  all  these  articles. 

Still  a  third  detail  of  Administration  deals  with 
the  question  of  Remounts,  which  means  the  renewal 
of  horses.  Both  Ordnance  Stores  and  Remounts 
have  their  own  Directors,  who  work  in  conjunction 
with  the  Quartermaster  General.  The  only  impor- 
tant equipment  used  by  armies  not  supplied  by  the 
Quartermaster  General  is  arms  of  all  description, 
guns  and  gun  carriages,  vehicles,  telegraph  and  tel- 
ephone stores  and  ammunition,  which  are  all  pro- 
vided by  the  Master  General  of  Ordnance,  whose 
chief  source  of  supply  is  the  Ministry  of  Munitions. 

The  big  difference  between  food  supplies  and 
ordnance  stores  is  that  one  can  wait  and  the  other 
cannot.  Guns,  for  instance,  do  not  have  to  be  fed 
regularly,  but  soldiers  and  horses  cannot  go  a  day 
without  sustenance.  Hence  the  Supply  machine  can 
brook  no  delays  or  breakdown.  Interruption  spells 
disaster. 

Here  then  is  the  situation.  Roughly  speaking,  five 
millions  of  British  soldiers  are  training  at  home  or 
fighting  or  being  held  in  reserve  in  France,  Meso- 
potamia, Egypt,  Salonika  or  Africa.     They  must 


WAR  AND  BUSINESS  25 

have  three  meals  and  their  tea  every  day;  their 
clothes,  boots,  underwear  and  equipment  must  be 
kept  in  good  order  and  renewed  at  regular  inter\'als ; 
their  horses,  mules  and  motor  cars  must  also  have 
the  wherewithal  to  live  or  to  be  used.  In  short,  the 
British  army  must  be  maintained  as  a  going  and 
effective  concern. 

Some  of  these  troops  are  five  thousand  miles 
from  the  original  source  of  their  supplies;  nearly 
all  their  food  and  commodities  must  run  the  gaunt- 
let of  the  seven  seas,  where  hides  the  deadly  peril  of 
the  submarine.  Besides,  immense  details  of  troops 
are  being  constantly  shifted  from  place  to  place;  in 
some  quarters  ranks  are  thinned ;  in  others  they  are 
steadily  and  sometimes  suddenly  increased.  How 
then  is  the  vast  task  of  supplying  them  achieved? 

Let  us  begin  at  the  beginning.  You  cannot  dis- 
tribute food  and  materials  for  these  far-flung  mil- 
lions without  assembling  at  first.  Furthermore,  you 
cannot  mobilise  supplies  without  knowing  what  and 
how  much  you  want.  Hence  the  cornerstone  of  the 
immense  structure  that  we  are  about  to  explore  is 
really  need  as  expressed  by  the  army  contract. 

Formerly  all  British  Army  contracts  were  made 
by  the  Director  of  Army  Contracts  at  the  War 
Office.  He  was  a  Civil  Servant  and,  therefore,  not 
a  soldier.  As  the  armies  swelled  from  hundreds  of 
thousands  to  millions  and  as  the  enormous  demands 
for  food  and  supplies  began  to  test  and  tax  the 
sources  of  raw  and  finished  materials  it  became  ap- 


26  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

parent  that  only  trained  and  seasoned  business  ex- 
perience could  successfully  cope  with  a  situation 
that  threatened  to  be  acute  and  costly. 

Early  in  19 17  the  whole  scheme  of  War  Office 
Contracts,  which  means  the  provision  for  all  the 
British  Armies,  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Andrew  Weir,  a  civilian.  He  is  a  hard-headed, 
large-visioned,  self-made  Scotchman,  a  shipping 
prince  whose  boats  are  known  in  nearly  every  port 
and  whose  name  is  almost  as  familiar  in  New  York 
as  it  is  in  London.  The  ancient  title  of  Surveyor 
General  of  Supply  was  revived  for  him. 

Mr.  Weir  is  a  member  of  the  Army  Council  com- 
posed of  the  Chief  of  the  Imperial  Staff,  the  Quar- 
termaster General,  the  Adjutant  General,  the  Mas- 
ter General  of  Ordnance,  the  Director  General  of 
Military  Aeronautics,  the  Director  General  pi 
Movements  and  Railways  and  a  Financial  Secre- 
tary. This  Council  runs  the  war  so  far  as  the 
British  end  of  it  is  concerned.  At  the  head  of  it 
is  the  Secretary  of  State  for  War — the  post  that 
Lord  Kitchener  held  at  the  time  of  his  death — which 
corresponds  to  the  Secretary  of  War  in  our  Cabi- 
net, but  with  larger  powers. 

We  can  now  proceed  to  translate  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  Supply  and  Transport  into  the  simple  terms 
of  trade.  The  Surveyor  General  of  Supply  is  the 
Producer ;  the  Quartermaster  General  is  the  Distrib- 
utor ;  the  Army  is  the  Consumer.  The  only  differ- 
ence between  this  business  and  a  regular  business 


ANDREW  WEIR 
Surveyor  General  of   Supply 


WAR  AND  BUSINESS  27 

pursued  for  profit  is  that  with  the  former  no  selling 
campaign  is  required.  All  the  output  is  sold  before 
it  is  produced. 

Being  a  business  man,  Mr.  Weir  looked  upon  his 
new  work  in  the  light  of  an  industrial  enterprise. 
He  immediately  organised  it  just  as  if  he  were  going 
into  the  business  of  war  supply  for  the  rest  of  his 
life.  He  knew  nothing  about  war  but  he  assumed 
(and  not  without  truth)  that  the  principles  that  had 
made  him  a  successful  man  of  commercial  affairs 
would  apply  to  any  other  undertaking.  With  the 
organisation  of  the  department  of  army  contracts 
you  strike  the  first  line  of  scientific  defence  that  ap- 
proved trade  methods  have  reared  about  the  sub- 
sistence of  the  British  armies. 

To  the  everlasting  credit  of  the  British  soldier 
let  it  be  said  that  he  welcomed  the  innovation.  The 
old  enmity  between  regular  and  civilian  was  at  once 
wiped  out.  The  soldier  realised  that  this  war  has 
become  the  biggest  business  of  all  time.  Contact 
with  live  business  brains  and  elastic  business 
experience  has  stimulated  his  imagination  and  de- 
veloped his  initiative.  The  old-time  administrative 
soldier  was  the  slave  of  red  tape;  all  his  thinking 
was  done  for  him;  everything  was  by  precedent. 
The  men  of  the  Quartermaster  General's  Depart- 
ment under  this  new  association  will  be  masters  of 
trade  technique,  equipped  to  run  any  business  job 
when  the  war  is  over. 

When  you  go  into  the  office  of  the  Surveyor  Gen- 


28  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

eral  of  Supply  you  think  you  are  in  the  board  room 
of  a  great  corporation.  On  the  walls,  for  example, 
hang  the  diagrams  so  familiar  to  American  indus- 
trial establishments.  Unfolded  on  a  table  is  the 
master  chart  that  tells  the  whole  story  of  army  sup- 
ply from  the  contract  end. 

At  the  apex  of  what  we  in  the  United  States  call 
the  pyramid  of  organisation  is  the  Surveyor  Gen- 
eral of  Supply,  who  corresponds  to  the  President 
and  General  Manager.  Next  in  rank  comes  the 
Advisory  Board,  consisting  of  the  Quartermaster 
General  or  a  representative ;  the  Master  General  of 
Ordnance  or  a  representative,  the  Finance  Member 
(The  Watchdog  of  the  British  Treasury)  or  a  rep- 
resentative, and  three  civilians  who  are  Lord  Pirrie, 
Chairman  of  Harland  &  Wolff,  the  famous  ship- 
builders, and  one  of  the  largest  employers  of  labour 
in  England ;  F.  Dudley  Docker,  the  George  Pullman 
of  England,  and  builder  of  the  first  "tanks,"  and 
P.  H.  McClelland,  a  shipping  wizard  and  all  around 
man  of  business.  The  Assistant  Surv^eyor  General 
of  Supply — Mr.  Austin  Harris — another  captain  of 
capital — is  an  ex-officio  member.  This  Board,  I 
might  add,  sits  every  day  on  the  business  at  hand 
just  like  the  board  of  directors  of  the  Standard  Oil 
Company  convenes  every  morning.  It  knows  pre- 
cisely what  is  going  on  all  the  time. 

These  civilians  emphasise  one  of  the  most  sig- 
nificant phases  of  the  whole  supply  contract  scheme. 
It  lies  in  the  fact  that  in  every  domain  that  spends 


WAR  AND  BUSINESS  29 

money  for  the  army  you  find  what  Mr.  Weir  calls 
"commercial  members,"  men  recruited  without  pay 
from  the  business  world,  who  pass  on  the  economic 
and  financial  merits  of  all  propositions.  In  this  ar- 
rangement is  one  of  the  many  valuable  lessons  that 
our  new  and  growing  military  establishment  may 
learn  from  the  British. 

The  work  of  the  Surveyor  General  of  Supply  is 
divided  into  three  main  branches — Demands,  Con- 
tracts and  Administration.  Since  the  word  Demand 
will  appear  frequently  in  this  chapter  and  others  to 
follow  it  may  be  well  to  explain  just  what  it  means. 
A  Demand  is  the  itemised  statement  in  terms  of 
pounds,  cases,  tins,  gallons,  garments  or  bushels  of 
an  army's  needs.  It  may  be  a  single  typewritten 
sheet  or  forty  sheets.  In  the  case  of  ordnance  stores 
for  a  unit  like  a  battalion,  battery  or  a  brigade,  the 
list  is  printed  in  book  form  and  called  a  Mobilisa- 
tion Unit  Table.  The  demand  is  made  up  in  the 
field  by  the  Director  of  Supply  and  Transport  at- 
tached to  each  army.  There  are  five  complete  Brit- 
ish armies  comprising  the  Expeditionary  Force  in 
France.  He  knows  just  how  many  men  and  animals 
he  must  feed;  how  many  trucks,  cars  and  motor 
cycles  he  must  supply  with  petrol  and  spare  parts. 
Since  forces  are  being  shifted  and  changed  con- 
stantly a  new  Demand  is  made  up  each  month.  The 
demand  becomes  the  Food  and  Supply  Budget — a 
definite  thing  to  do  business  for  and  with. 

You  get  some  idea  of  the  scope  of  British  Army 


30  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

Supply  provision  when  I  say  that  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war  the  value  of  purchases  made  by 
the  contracts  branch  alone  has  aggregated  $3,750,- 
000,000;  that  the  annual  gross  outlay  now  is  some- 
thing like  $1,750,000,000,  and  this  does  not  include 
guns,  ammunition,  aeroplanes  or  mechanical  trans- 
port. 

Among  the  purchases  during  the  war  have  been 
105,000,000  yards  of  cloth,  115,000,000  yards  of 
flannel,  400,000,000  pounds  of  bacon,  500,000,000 
rations  of  preserved  meat,  260,000,000  tins  of  jam, 
167,000,000  pounds  of  cheese,  35,000,000  knives, 
forks  and  spoons;  35,000,000  pairs  of  boots, 
40,000,000  horse  shoes  and  25,000,000  gas  helmets. 

Looking  at  this  enormous  outlay  from  another 
angle  the  British  armies  in  France  alone  each  month 
require  95,000  tons  of  oats,  4,000,000  gallons  of 
gasolene,  20,000  tons  of  flour,  10,000,000  pounds 
of  jam  and  75,000  tons  of  hay.  Ponder  on  these 
figures  and  you  begin  to  think  that  Demands  are 
written  on  ten  league  canvasses  with  brushes  of 
comet's  hair ! 

Having  seen  what  a  Demand  is  we  can  proceed 
with  the  specific  job  of  the  Surveyor  General  of 
Supply,  which  is  to  see  that  contracts  are  let  for  the 
items  set  forth.  This  brings  us  to  the  Demands 
and  Contracts  Divisions. 

Let  us  take  Demands  first.  They  are  divided  into 
five  sections — Stores,  which  comprise  all  engineer- 
ing  equipment,    timber    and    hardware;    Supplies, 


WAR  AND  BUSINESS  31 

which  embrace  all  food  and  fuel;  Works  Supplies, 
such  as  building  and  trench  material ;  Clothing,  and 
Medical  Stores. 

Each  one  of  these  Demands  branches  has  a  Sup- 
ply Committee,  which  includes  a  Commercial  Mem- 
ber (the  inevitable  link  with  business),  a  representa- 
tive of  the  Quartermaster  General's  Department 
concerned  with  this  specific  article  (it  may  be  food 
or  clothing),  and  who  is  known  as  the  Demanding 
Officer,  and  a  representative  of  the  Director  of 
Army  Contracts.  The  post  of  Director  of  Army 
Contracts  survives,  but  it  is  subordinate  to  the  Sur- 
veyor General  of  Supply.  Thus  the  Supply  Com- 
mittee becomes  a  miniature  organisation  of  experts 
which  concentrates  upon  one  group  of  supplies. 

Since  we  have  reached  the  liaison  (as  the  army 
phrase  goes)  between  the  Quartermaster  General's 
Department  and  the  Surveyor  General  of  Supply  it 
is  important  that  you  know  just  how  this  former 
organisation  is  constituted.  Henceforth,  and  until 
the  food  and  supplies  reach  Tommy  in  the  trenches 
you  will  find  some  member  of  the  force  in  evidence. 

You  have  seen  how  the  Quartermaster  General, 
Sir  John  Cowans,  sits  in  his  office  at  the  War  Office 
head  of  the  whole  distributing  machine  and  know- 
ing every  hour  just  what  the  British  troops  want 
and  what  they  have.  Under  him  are  two  separate 
units.  One  is  that  part  of  his  organisation  that 
works  at  desks  in  the  War  Office  and  throughout 
England,  America  and  wherever  the  British  army 


32  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

buys  or  makes  supplies ;  the  other  is  an  exact  replica 
in  the  field  from  Quartermaster  General  down. 
There  is  a  complete  organisation  in  France  and 
smaller  ones  in  every  other  theatre  of  war.  For 
the  purposes  of  this  book  we  are  concerned  with 
the  contingent  in  England. 

The  Quartermaster  General  to  all  the  forces  is 
really  the  Andrew  Carnegie  of  the  supply  corpora- 
tion. Like  Carnegie,  he  has  the  ability  to  select  and 
keep  capable  associates  and  subordinates.  First 
down  the  line  (and  in  the  office  next  to  him)  is  the 
Director  of  Supply  and  Transport,  Major  General 
A.  R.  Crofton  Atkins  ("Tommy  Atkins"  is  what  his 
colleagues  call  him) — titular  head  of  the  Army  Ser- 
vice Corps  and  a  many-sided  individual,  who  com- 
bines the  authority  of  the  solider  with  a  rare  genius 
or  organisation.  If  he  had  gone  into  trade  in  Eng- 
land he  would  have  been  another  Lever  or  Lipton; 
in  America  Marshall  Field  and  John  Wanamaker 
would  have  been  his  rivals. 

Under  him  the  British  supply  machine,  built  to 
meet  the  needs  of  168,000  men  (the  old  regular 
army),  has  stood  the  strain  of  every  demand  that 
this  war  has  made,  which  means  that  it  has  pro- 
vided for  five  millions.  It  is  still  going  strong.  In 
General  Atkins'  office  is  a  chart  which  sets  forth  in 
pyramid  fashion  the  work  of  every  branch  of  the 
Quartermaster  General's  Department.  The  small- 
est abattoir  in  the  department  of  meat  supply  is 
fixed  on  it. 


From    a    Copyrighted   Portrait    by    Percival   Anderson. 

MAJOR   GENERAL   A.    R.    CROFTON   ATKINS 
Director  of  Supply  and  Transport  at  the  War  Office 


WAR  AND  BUSINESS  33 

Every  branch  has  a  number  and  an  executive 
head.  Take  Food  Supplies.  It  is  technically  known 
as  "Q.M.G.  6,"  and  is  headed  by  an  Assistant 
Director  of  Supplies,  Colonel  H.  F.  P.  Percival, 
who  has  his  own  staff.  Each  branch,  in  turn,  has 
various  subdivisions  indicated  by  letters  such  as 
"Q.M.G.  6  A,"  which  has  to  do  with  the  organisa- 
tion of  Base  and  Main  Depots;  fixing  reserves  of 
food  to  be  held  in  the  field;  provision  of  meat  stuffs, 
military  butcheries,  cold  storage  and  refrigerators; 
supply  accounting  and  relations  with  the  Food  Min- 
istry. 

"Q.M.G.  6  B"  deals,  among  many  other  things, 
with  one  of  the  most  difficult  of  all  problems,  gaso- 
lene; "Q.M.G.  6  C"  with  co-ordination  of  all  de- 
mands from  the  field  and  all  questions  affecting  the 
shipment  of  supplies  (the  allocation  of  tonnage  is 
an  immense  problem),  and  so  on.  I  merely  cite 
these  typical  duties  to  show  the  immense  scope  of 
the  department.  There  are  eleven  of  these  num- 
bered branches,  each  with  many  subdivisions,  yet  all 
are  joined  by  a  team-work  that  is  one  of  the  won- 
ders of  the  organisation.  None  of  the  activities 
clash.  Each  unit  has  its  rigidly  defined  task.  Linked 
together  they  make  a  marvellous  machine. 

By  this  procedure  you  can  understand  how  easy 
it  is  for  the  Surveyor  General  of  Supply  to  have  a 
competent  Demanding  Officer  from  let  us  say 
"Q.M.G.  6"  on  the  Supply  Committee  which  deals 
with  Food  Supplies.     In  this  concrete  case  the  De- 


34  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

manding  Officer  is  the  one  who  receives  the 
Monthly  Demand  from  the  Director  of  Supply  with 
the  overseas  armies. 

Now  we  can  go  into  the  matter  of  Contracts.  The 
Demands  Division  has  already  made  known  the 
needs  of  the  armies.  For  staple  supplies  like  jam, 
tinned  meats,  biscuits,  flour,  sugar  and  potatoes, 
which  can  be  bought  in  big  bulk,  and  for  articles 
to  be  manufactured,  the  Surveyor  General  of  Sup- 
ply must  get  the  Demand  three  months  ahead  so  as 
to  enable  him  to  place  orders  in  America,  Australia 
and  Canada. 

In  order  to  co-ordinate  the  work  between  De- 
mands and  Contracts  Branches  there  is  a  commit- 
tee in  the  Contracts  Department  to  correspond  with 
every  Supply  Committee  in  the  Demands  Section. 
Likewise  there  is  a  General  Supply  Contracts  Board 
headed  by  the  Assistant  Surveyor  General  of 
Supply. 

It  is  in  the  Contracts  Branch  that  you  find  the 
commercial  domination  of  war  supply  at  its  height. 
In  the  economies  effected,  the  controls  established, 
the  mobilisation  of  materials  achieved,  you  get  the 
full  dramatisation  of  business  efficiency.  Under  its 
constructive  influence  the  army  contract  as  created 
by  this  war  has  been  purged  and  sterilised.  Instead 
of  a  juicy  plum  to  be  plucked  by  the  despoilers  of 
the  people's  money  it  has  become  a  definite  business- 
like document  safeguarded  and  supervised  at  every 
turn. 


WAR  AND  BUSINESS  35 

In  normal  times  Government  purchase  in  Eng- 
land is  by  public  competitive  offering.  Where  the 
needs  of  the  Army  form  a  relatively  small  part  of 
the  available  production  of  the  country  and  where, 
as  a  result,  there  is  effective  and  healthy  competi- 
tion, this  method  is  the  best  means  to  secure  satis- 
factory supplies  at  reasonable  prices. 

The  tremendous  demands  of  this  war  upset  all 
these  conditions.  The  resources  of  many  trades 
and  industries  began  to  be  taxed.  The  gouging  of 
the  Government  began.  But  John  Bull  did  not  long 
stand  for  this  sort  of  thing.  As  early  as  June,  1915, 
when  the  industries  began  to  feel  the  strain  of  the 
unprecedented  production,  the  system  was  inaugu- 
rated of  requiring  contractors  to  justify  their  quota- 
tions of  price  by  the  submission  of  costs,  or  what 
the  English  call  costings.  It  limited  profits  to  a 
reasonable  degree  and  wiped  out  the  effect  of  the 
artificial  market  conditions  produced  by  the  abnor- 
mal military  demands. 

But  this  procedure  had  no  statutory  authority.  It 
was  purely  a  matter  of  negotiation  with  individual 
contractors  and  trade  associations.  As  the  armies 
grew  and  the  difficulties  of  supply  increased  these 
more  or  less  amiable  methods  were  found  to  be  in- 
effective. 

John  Jones,  the  manufacturer,  capitalised  his  ad- 
vantage and  exacted  his  pound  of  flesh.  Rotund 
as  he  is,  John  Bull  declined  to  stand  for  the  extor- 
tion.   Fangs  were  put  into  the  Defense  of  the  Realm 


36  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

Acts  with  the  result  that  a  firm's  output  could  be 
requisitioned  by  the  Government  and  a  price  fixed 
on  a  basis  cost  of  production  plus  a  reasonable 
profit  on  a  pre-war  standard.  These  powers  have 
been  widely  used  both  by  the  War  Office  and  the 
Admiralty.  The  mere  fact  that  they  exist  is  a  bul- 
wark to  the  public  purse. 

Here  is  the  way  it  works.  Let  us  assume  that 
the  War  Office  through  the  Surveyor  General  of 
Supply  gets  a  bid  for  overcoats  at  $io  a  piece.  "All 
right,"  says  the  Supply  Board,  "we  will  accept  that 
bid  subject  to  costings."  Accountants  are  imme- 
diately set  to  work  upon  the  contractor's  books.  If 
it  is  found  that  the  price  is  excessive  the  factory  is 
commandeered  and  run  by  the  government.  This 
whiphand  over  extortion  has  had  the  effect  of  re- 
ducing the  prices  of  all  war  commodities. 

The  system  in  vogue  for  keeping  a  check  on  the 
contractor  is  very  simple.  A  staff  of  skilled  inves- 
tigators visits  the  plant  and  checks  the  details  of 
material  used  from  the  actual  invoices;  of  labour 
employed  from  the  wage  books;  of  overhead 
charges  from  the  trading  and  profit  and  loss  ac- 
counts and  of  profits  from  the  pre-war  rate,  the 
present  turnover  and  the  amount  of  capital  em- 
ployed. Thus  there  is  no  way  for  the  contractor  to 
escape  absolute  and  complete  scrutiny  and  censor- 
ship. 

The  savings  effected  in  the  purchase  of  Miscel- 
laneous Stores  (hardware,  horse  shoes,  brushes  and 


WAR  AND  BUSINESS  37 

similar  articles)  will  show  the  beneficent  effects  of 
the  system.  During  the  twelve  months  ending 
April  30  last  the  cost  of  contracts  for  these  stores 
was  $42,500,000.  These  costs  were  investigated 
under  the  Defense  of  the  Realm  Acts  and  reduc- 
tions to  the  value  of  $2,000,000  made.  On  the  first 
five  million  dollars  the  reduction  was  9  per  cent; 
on  the  last  it  was  only  2  per  cent,  which  shows  that 
the  era  of  extravagant  and  padded  quotations  is 
over.  It  is  only  one  result  of  the  business  adminis- 
tration.   War  is  indeed  on  a  business  basis. 

But  this  enormous  saving  which  applies  to  prac- 
tically every  commodity  is  merely  one  phase  of  the 
larger  rehabilitation  of  the  whole  matter  of  army 
supply.  As  the  demands  of  the  armies  increased  it 
was  found  necessary  to  regulate  production  in  all 
stages  of  manufacture  down  to  the  raw  materials. 
Under  the  Surveyor  General  of  Supply  a  Director 
of  Raw  Materials  was  appointed  in  A.  H.  Gold- 
finch, a  manufacturer  of  wide  and  seasoned  experi- 
ence. The  Material  is  either  purchased  by  the  Gov- 
ernment or  the  transactions  in  it  are  controlled 
under  the  Defense  of  the  Realm  regulations.  The 
conversion  into  the  finished  article  is  made  on  a 
basis  of  fixed  price  for  each  process  of  manufac- 
ture. The  chief  raw  materials  controlled  now  are 
wool,  jute,  leather,  flax,  hemp  and  semi-finished 
steel. 

It  was  impossible  to  carry  out  such  regulation 
without  the  aid  of  experts  in  the  various  industries 


38  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

affected.  A  whole  new  branch  composed  of  trained 
buyers  and  manufacturers  had  to  be  established. 
For  the  provision  of  clothing  and  including  the  pur- 
chase of  the  raw  material,  not  less  than  one  hun- 
dred technical  officers  are  employed.  Most  of  them 
are  civilians  who  are  given  commissions  and  des- 
ignated as  "temporary  officers" — who  enter  the  ser- 
vice for  the  duration  of  the  war.  This  same  plan 
has  been  followed  in  connection  with  leather,  jute 
and  flax. 

This  all-important  branch  of  army  supply  has  a 
significance  that  reaches  far  into  the  future  and  is 
not  without  its  portent  for  America.  The  more 
you  see  of  it  the  more  you  realise  that  this  is  a  war 
of  raw  materials  of  all  kinds.  So  will  be  the  War 
after  the  War.  Germany  will  only  succumb  when 
she  faces  the  exhaustion  of  the  materials  with 
which  to  wage  the  struggle.  Upon  it  likewise 
depends  her  industrial  revival  or  impotency. 

England's  organised  control  of  raw  materials  not 
only  strengthens  her  weapons  of  actual  physical  of- 
fence, but  girds  her  up  for  the  grilling  days  of 
peace,  when  bitter  and  bloodless  trade  competition 
will  have  full  sway  and  when  Raw  Material  will 
be  King.  But  this  is  a  look  ahead.  Let  us  see  in 
the  concrete  terms  of  war  economies  what  the  con- 
trol of  materials  has  brought  about. 

Take  Wool.  The  world  shortage  was  first  felt 
early  in  191 6,  and  England  immediately  took  steps 
to  protect  herself  against  excessive  prices  and  to 


WAR  AND  BUSINESS  39 


insure  an  adequate  supply  for  her  military  purposes. 
First  of  all  she  bought  the  entire  home  clip  for 
$32,500,000.  The  purchase  was  made  by  expert 
wool  buyers.  The  prices  were  fixed  at  35  per  cent 
above  those  obtaining  in  June  and  July,  1914-  High 
as  this  was  it  was  considerably  lower  than  the 
market  quotations  at  the  time  of  the  purchase. 

As  army  demands,  together  with  neutral  and 
American  demands  increased,  the  whole  Australian 
and  New  Zealand  clips  were  bought  for  $175,000,- 
000,  which  was  ten  per  cent  lower  than  the  pre- 
vailing price.  The  effect  of  these  two  operations 
was  to  concentrate  in  the  hands  of  the  British  gov- 
ernment the  bulk  of  the  wool  supplies  of  the  Em- 
pire. 

To  economise  transport,  the  raw  wool  is  shipped 
direct  to  the  manufacturer.  The  various  agencies 
concerned  in  the  processes  by  which  it  is  converted 
into  the  finished  product  are  compensated  at  a  price 
based  on  cost  of  production  plus  a  reasonable  profit. 
In  this  work  you  get  a  gratifying  example  of  co- 
operation because  farmers,  manufacturers  and  trade 
union  officials  are  called  in  to  assist  in  the  operation 
of  the  scheme.  The  wool  which  is  not  required  by 
the  Government  for  War  purposes  is  sold  at  mar- 
ket prices.  Preference  is  given  to  the  needs  of  the 
British  export  trade  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining 
the  foreign  exchanges  and  the  prices  are  kept  as 
stable  as  possible. 

The  control  of  British  and  Colonial  wool  has  re- 


40  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

suited  in  immense  economies  for  the  State.  The 
effect  of  war  conditions  upon  market  prices  of  the 
raw  material  has  been  greatly  minimised,  even  elim- 
inated, while  the  fixed  price  of  the  raw  material 
has  enabled  the  W^ar  Office  to  control  the  cost  of 
production  at  every  stage.  In  actual  money  it  has 
meant  a  saving  to  the  Government  of  $65,000,000. 

Take  leather.  The  army  needs,  as  may  be  sup- 
posed, are  enormous.  Boots,  harness,  saddlery  and 
leather  equipment  for  the  horses  and  belting  for 
factories  are  required  in  huge  quantities.  During 
nine  months  in  19 15  the  Government  bill  for  these 
supplies  was  $75,000,000.  This  tremendous  de- 
mand sent  prices  soaring,  owing  to  the  competition 
between  manufacturers  for  the  raw  material.  So 
John  Bull  got  busy  with  another  control.  A  sta- 
tistical survey  of  the  tanning  trade  was  made  and 
the  visible  supply  of  leather  commandeered.  Ex- 
ports of  leather  were  forbidden  and  tanners  were 
assisted  to  make  purchases  in  South  America.  The 
fangs  of  the  Defense  of  the  Realm  Acts  were  put 
into  the  whole  business,  which  at  once  came  under 
military  direction. 

The  technical  and  trade  experts  attached  to  the 
Contracts  Branch  were  given  full  play  for  their 
talents  and  the  whole  leather  industry  took  on  a  new 
scope  and  life.  Among  other  things  kips  for  leather 
uppers  were  bought  in  large  quantities  from  India. 
This  operation  became  invested  with  a  peculiar  in- 
terest because  the  trade  was  largely  in   German 


WAR  AND  BUSINESS  41 

hands  before  the  war.  The  price  of  leather  pro- 
duced from  these  kips  is  about  24  cents  a  foot, 
while  that  of  the  corresponding  leather  from  Brit- 
ish hides  is  42  cents  a  foot.  This  whole  control 
of  leather  has  not  only  enabled  Britain  to  supply 
her  war  needs,  but  to  provide  for  some  of  the  re- 
quirements of  her  Allies.  She  made  7,000,000  pairs 
of  boots  for  the  Russian  army.  It  is  estimated  that 
the  saving  to  the  War  Office  has  approximated  not 
less  than  $15,000,000.  This  is  exclusive  of  the 
saving  in  the  purchase  of  the  Indian  kips,  where 
the  economies  are  about  $6,000,000. 

So,  too,  with  jute,  flax  and  hemp.  The  necessity 
for  control  in  these  commodities  was  caused  by  the 
immense  quantities  required  by  the  army  for  sand- 
bags and  other  jute  bags,  sacking,  tent  linen,  general 
equipment,  aeroplane  cloth  and  rope.  The  Govern- 
ment prohibited  all  importation  of  raw  jute  and 
then  requisitioned  all  unsold  raw  material  in  the 
country.  This  was  followed  by  an  equitable  distri- 
bution of  the  supply  among  the  spirmers  at  a  fixed 
price. 

With  flax  a  whole  new  agricultural  activity  was 
set  in  motion.  Private  import  was  prohibited  and 
large  quantities  of  flax  seed  were  imported  and 
sowed  in  the  North  of  Ireland.  The  production  of 
seed  in  Ireland,  Canada  and  India  was  encouraged. 
It  is  an  evidence  of  the  growing  desire  of  Great 
Britain  to  be  self-sufficient  during  and  after  the 
war.     As  in  the  cases  of  wool  and  leather,  huge 


42  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

savings  have  been  brought  about.  The  control  of 
jute  manufacture  alone  has  saved  the  British  gov- 
ernment $30,000,000.  In  hemp  the  margin  of 
profit  for  shippers  has  been  reduced  from  $175  to 
$125  a  ton.  The  estimated  annual  turnover  on 
70,000  tons  has  produced  a  combined  profit  and 
saving  of  $5,850,000. 

The  temptation  is  strong  to  linger  over  more  of 
these  war  economies  for  the  reasons  that  they  have 
such  enormous  meaning  for  America  and  her  part 
in  the  war.  The  case  of  barbed  wire  is  one  in  point. 
Only  those  people  who  have  seen  this  war  know 
that  it  is  a  war  of  wire.  Northern  France  and 
Flanders  are  grim  and  rusty  forests  of  barbed  en- 
tanglement. 

In  19 1 5,  when  the  war  was  getting  into  its  stride, 
the  British  output  of  barbed  wire  had  fallen  to 
250  tons  a  week.  The  army  requirements  were 
four  times  that  much.  Barbed  wire  is  produced 
from  wire  rods.  Before  the  war  most  of  this  was 
secured  from  Germany  and  Belgium.  The  German 
product  was  the  cheapest  because  it  was  a  subsidised 
industry.  This  supply  was  automatically  cut  off 
by  the  war.  The  only  source  left  was  America  and 
the  price  and  freight  on  her  output  rose  skyward. 

England  thereupon  set  out  to  develop  her  wire 
rod  production.  Steel  billets  were  provided  by  the 
Ministry  of  Munitions,  which  controls  all  the  avail- 
able steel  and  the  furnaces  began  to  roir.  Before 
long  the  output  had  grown  from  250  tons  a  week 


WAR  AND  BUSINESS  43 

to  950.  The  Government  reserves  the  entire  output 
and  allocates  the  rods  among  the  various  wire 
makers  according  to  their  requirements.  Not  only 
is  the  whole  industry  reorganised,  but  the  usual 
big  saving,  due  to  control,  has  been  effected. 
Where  wire  rods  cost  $150  a  ton  in  the  open  mar- 
ket the  Government  produces  them  at  about  '^J2 
a  ton. 

\A'ith  tea — one  of  the  mainstays  of  British  life 
and  a  strong  support  of  the  Tommy — a  tremendous 
economy  has  been  effected  by  cutting  out  the  mid- 
dleman and  transmitting  the  raw  material  direct 
from  producer  to  consumer.  Formerly  the  tea  was 
brought  where  it  lay  and  collected  by  army  trans- 
port for  delivery  to  a  bonded  warehouse  for  blend- 
ing and  packing.  It  was  then  sent  to  the  home 
supply  depots  or  direct  to  France.  This  was  costly 
and  complicated. 

The  tea  is  now  bought  f .  o.  b.  Calcutta  and  other 
places  and  sent  without  blending  on  Admiralty 
ships  straight  to  the  depots  or  to  France  in  the  orig- 
inal package.  There  is  a  big  saving  both  in  price 
and  in  shipping,  handling  and  warehousing.  The 
price  paid  under  the  old  system  varied  from  20  to 
22  cents  a  pound;  under  the  new  arrangement  it 
can  be  laid  down  for  18  cents  a  pound.  Consid- 
ering that  England  is  buying  a  total  of  60,000,000 
pounds  of  tea  this  year  you  can  see  that  it  is  a  con- 
siderable item. 

One  more  commodity — jam — will  serve  to  show 


44  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

still  another  phase  of  the  British  war  supply  econ- 
omy. Until  recently  the  jam  was  bought  by  com- 
petitive bids.  Now  it  is  purchased  under  very 
unique  auspices.  Eight  of  the  leading  jam  manu- 
facturers have  been  formed  into  a  Government 
Committee  which  buys  all  the  fruit  necessary  for 
the  government  supply.  This  prevents  competition 
and  a  consequent  increase  in  price.  The  firms  are 
then  paid  for  the  actual  cost  of  the  fruit  and  sugar 
used;  for  the  actual  cost  of  delivery  of  the  finiit 
and  sugar  to  their  works  and  of  the  finished  jam 
to  the  military  depots  and  for  the  actual  cost  of 
time  and  cases,  plus  5  per  cent  profit  if  the  manu- 
facturers make  their  own  cases.  A  fixed  rate  has 
been  established  for  each  100  pounds.  It  is  based 
on  previous  profits  and  all  manufacturers  have  been 
required  to  produce  their  books  extending  back 
three  years  before  the  war.  Not  only  is  jam  cheaper 
but  it  is  greatly  improved  in  quality. 

I  have  cited  these  examples  of  supply  saving  to 
show  that  the  conduct  of  the  Business  of  War  is  as 
efficient  and  economical  as  any  enterprise  conduct- 
ed for  profit.  What  is  equally  important  this 
control  procedure  points  the  way  to  a  post-war 
industrial  regeneration  that  will  make  the  British 
Empire  a  formidable  world  trade  factor. 


II — Army  Demand  and  Supply 

THE  whole  procession  of  army  supply  be- 
gins and  ends  with  a  contract.  How  is  it 
made?  Consult  a  chart  in  the  office  of  the 
Surveyor  General  of  Supply  and  you  can  see  the 
consecutive  process  from  the  time  the  Demand 
comes  in  from  the  War  Area  (the  field),  or  the 
Home  and  other  Stations  until  the  goods  are  actual- 
ly delivered  to  the  supply  depot  or  the  army  units. 
Every  tender  (or  bid  as  it  is  known  in  America) 
invited  (and  exactly  204,985  were  asked  for  dur- 
ing the  last  fiscal  year)  is  on  a  form  specially  pre- 
pared by  the  War  Office.  The  specification,  be  it 
for  meat  cleaver  or  hospital  tent,  is  carefully  drawn, 
duplicated  by  the  hundred,  and  sent  with  the  blank 
tender  form  to  the  bidder. 

At  this  point  you  naturally  ask :  How  is  the  Con- 
tracts Branch  to  put  its  finger  at  once  on  avail- 
able bidders?  Go  to  Imperial  House  in  Tothill 
Street,  in  London,  and  you  will  find  out.  In  this 
immense  establishment  which  houses  the  thousands 
of  clerks  of  the  Contracts  Department  you  will 
discover  a  card  index  containing  the  names  of 
70,000  manufacturers  or  dealers.  These  firms  are 
in  every  neutral  or  allied  country,  but  mainly  in 
Great  Britain,  Canada,  America  and  Australia. 
They  can  produce  anything  that  the  British  armies 

45 


46  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

want.  When  the  armies  cannot  get  what  they  want 
from  some  outside  concern  they  make  it  on  their 
own. 

If,  for  example,  bids  for  biscuits  are  desired,  you 
simply  turn  to  the  cards  marked  "Biscuits."  On 
them  you  will  find  the  names  of  every  available  bis- 
cuit-producing establishment  in  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States.  More  than  this  you  will  find  a 
record  of  every  contract  that  the  firm  has  had  with 
the  British  government;  the  date  and  the  price. 

Hence  all  that  is  necessary  is  to  send  blank  tenders 
with  specifications  or  samples  to  every  biscuit  firm 
on  the  list.  In  order  to  get  the  widest  competition 
and  to  encourage  all  British  firms  to  compete  for 
army  contracts,  samples  and  specifications  are  some- 
times sent  to  Boards  of  Trade  with  a  view  of  in- 
teresting their  members. 

All  bids  are  opened  by  a  Tender  Board  consist- 
ing of  the  Director  of  Army  Contracts,  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  Financial  Department  and  a  rep- 
resentative of  the  Quartermaster  General.  If  it  is 
a  matter  of  food  the  latter  will  be  Q.M.G.  6. 

Once  the  contract  is  made  it  is  followed  through 
every  process  of  manufacture.  It  is  under  constant 
scrutiny  from  inspectors  and  "speeders  up."  If  a 
contractor  lags  behind  in  his  order  or  defaults  the 
Government  buys  the  article  contracted  for  else- 
where and  charges  it  up  to  the  delinquent  one. 

Every  contract  goes  to  the  Finance  Bureau.  Not 
a  penny  is  paid  out  until  actual  delivery  is  certified. 


ARMY  DEMAND  AND  SUPPLY        47 

A  check  is  then  sent  by  the  Treasury  and  the  trans- 
action, so  far  as  the  Surveyor  General  of  Supply 
is  concerned,  is  ended. 

You  will  readily  understand  that  thousands  of 
contracts  are  made  every  week.  How  then  can  the 
Surveyor  General  keep  tab  on  all  of  them?  It  is 
only  through  an  organised  checking  system  that  he 
can  find  out  how  much  money  he  is  spending  for 
the  Government,  Come  with  me  once  more  into 
Mr.  Weir's  office  and  I  will  show  you  how  this 
is  done. 

Every  morning  he  finds  on  his  desk  a  "Daily  Re- 
turn of  Contracts,  Requisitions  and  Orders  to 
Agents"  as  it  is  technically  known.  It  is  a  huge 
sheet  recording  every  contract  made  the  day  before. 
It  shows  the  quantity,  value  and  price,  together 
with  a  statement  of  the  last  contract  made  for  the 
same  article,  the  price,  date  and  amount  then  or- 
dered. The  only  contracts  now  shown  on  this 
Daily  Return  are  so  called  Exceptional  Demands, 
like  orders  for  two  or  three  million  blankets. 

Every  Monday  morning  Mr.  Weir  gets  a  weekly 
contract  statement  headed :  "Approximate  Values  of 

Contracts  During  Week  "    It  shows  by  days 

the  total  amounts  contracted  for  in  every  one  of 
the  major  departments  of  supply  during  the  preced- 
ing week.  It  is  divided  into  two  sections — one  for 
contracts  for  definite  quantities ;  the  other  for  "Con- 
tinuation Contracts,"  which  are  contracts  produc- 
ing fixed  quantities  weekly  or  monthly.     On  this 


48  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

weekly  contract  return  is  also  a  statement  of  Sales 
by  the  Department.  The  War  Office,  as  you  shall 
see  in  a  later  chapter,  sells  as  well  as  buys.  The 
main  purpose  of  this  sheet,  however,  is  to  enable 
the  Surveyor  General  to  know  every  Monday  morn- 
ing every  pound  that  has  been  spent  for  supplies 
the  week  previous. 

Some  sections  of  the  Contracts  domain  are  so 
huge  that  they  become  separate  and  self-sufficient 
principalities.  The  Royal  Army  Clothing  Depart- 
ment furnishes  the  most  effective  example.  Here 
you  have  a  monster  enterprise  that  spends  $250,- 
000,000  a  year. 

The  Director  General  is  Lord  Rothermere,  a 
civilian,  brother  of  Viscount  Northcliffe,  and  cast 
in  the  same  virile  and  upstanding  mould.  He  con- 
trols half  a  dozen  industrial  establishments,  runs  a 
string  of  successful  periodicals  on  the  side  and  rep- 
resents the  highest  type  of  commercial  magnate  re- 
cruited for  the  Business  of  War.  He  is  virtually 
head  of  the  war-created  Ready-Made  Clothing 
Trust  in  England  because  all  needles  in  the  kingdom 
fly  at  his  will.  The  wearing  apparel  needs  of  the 
British  soldiers  come  ahead  of  those  of  the  civilian. 
After  food  the  next  most  important  supply  item  is 
clothes.  The  machine  for  the  garment  and  acces- 
sory provision  is  characteristic  of  the  thoroughness 
and  efficiency  that  mark  the  whole  British  supply 
organisation.     It  is  charted  and  diagrammed  so 


ARMY  DEMAND  AND  SUPPLY        49 

comprehensively  that  you  can  easily  follow  every 
stage. 

The  Royal  Army  Clothing  Department  is  pri- 
marily a  vast  department  store  that  provides  its 
own  stocks.  The  control  of  wool — which  I  have 
described — solved  the  principal  problem  of  produc- 
tion. The  contracts  are  let  to  regular  manufac- 
turers. Each  one  has  a  definite  article  to  produce. 
It  may  be  jacket,  trousers,  puttee,  sock,  shoe  or  cap. 
There  is  more  to  the  job,  however,  than  merely 
placing  orders  and  watching  the  goods  come  in.  It 
means  constant  touch  with  all  trade  complications; 
knowledge  of  raw  materials;  meeting  labor  condi- 
tions and  forecasting  future  requirements. 

Inspection  plays  a  large  part  in  the  army  cloth- 
ing scheme.  Every  garment  must  be  made  up  to 
specifications  or  it  goes  back  to  the  maker.  Some 
idea  of  the  scope  and  effectiveness  of  inspection  is 
obtained  when  you  learn  that  out  of  3,000,000 
pieces  of  clothing  inspected  last  July  117,000  were 
rejected.  Out  of  2,000,000  pairs  of  shoes  sent  in 
68,000  pairs  were  turned  down.  In  one  lot  of 
184,000  sheepskin  coats — worn  by  motor  truck 
drivers — 27,000  were  found  to  be  below  standard. 

The  British  army  clothing  contract  is  a  model  of 
its  kind.  The  Continuation  System  is  used.  This 
means  that  contracts  are  placed  so  as  to  produce 
a  given  quantity  every  week.  Combined  with  this 
system  is  a  "Break"  clause  which  stipulates  a  four 
weeks'  notice  on  either  side  before  the  contract  is 


50  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

broken.  In  this  way  the  PubHc  Purse  is  safe- 
guarded because  in  the  event  that  the  war  ends  sud- 
denly all  contracts  can  be  closed  down  in  one  month 
instead  of  three,  six  or  nine  months,  which  would 
be  the  case  if  there  were  no  such  agreement.  The 
whole  Continuation  System  (which  we  may  well 
emulate)  standardises  production  and  provides  for 
an  even  and  constant  distribution  of  work  and  out- 
put. 

The  British  have  found  that  the  key  to  success- 
ful army  clothing  supply  is  to  place  orders  so  that 
Arrears  are  eliminated.  Arrears  are  goods  over- 
due for  delivery.  To  render  them  impossible  a 
census  of  machinery  is  taken  periodically  with  the 
idea  of  placing  contracts  so  that  no  contractor  will 
try  to  manipulate  more  than  the  capacity  of  his 
plant.  He  is  thus  prevented  from  taking  on  more 
than  he  can  produce  and  then  farming  out  the  sur- 
plus to  the  sweat  shop. 

As  with  food,  the  clothing  supply  must  be  made 
continuous  and  unfailing.  The  clothing  and  acces- 
sory demands  are  transmitted  from  the  front  to  the 
Divisional  Ordnance  Stores  officer,  who  issues  the 
requirements  from  a  Field  Base.  A  check  is  kept 
on  every  article  that  goes  out  so  that  it  can  be  in- 
stantly replaced.  If  10,000  overcoats  are  issued  at 
X  Base  in  France  a  duplicate  number  are  sent  over 
from  England  the  very  next  day  and  10,000  more 
are  ordered  from  the  factory. 

Glance  at  the  statistics  of  the  Royal  Army  Cloth- 


ARMY  DEMAND  AND  SUPPLY        51 

ing  Department  and  you  get  a  staggering  array  of 
figures.  Since  the  outbreak  of  the  war  24,500,000 
pairs  of  shoes  and  17,700,000  khaki  jackets  have 
been  issued.  The  total  issues  for  the  last  fiscal  year 
include  12,160,000  flannel  shirts,  26,000,000  socks, 
6,000,000  jackets,  6,000,000  pairs  of  trousers, 
2,200,000  overcoats,  3,370,000  caps  and  hats  and 
3,500,000  cardigans. 

To  manufacture  and  equip  this  immense  array 
of  stuff  were  required  52,000,000  yards  of  flannel, 
437,000,000  buttons,  5,500,000  yards  of  overcoat 
cloth,  11,125,000  yards  of  drab  serge  and  154,000 
gross  of  hooks  and  eyes. 

Yet  this  is  only  one  detail  of  Departmental  Sup- 
ply. Other  items  issued  during  a  year  by  the  Royal 
Army  Clothing  Department  maintain  the  standard 
of  these  titanic  numerals.  They  comprised  9,148,- 
000  puttees,  8,000,000  Turkish  towels,  3,700,000 
tooth  brushes,  2,300,000  shaving  brushes  3,500,000 
razors,  4,687,000  pairs  of  suspenders,  3,700,000 
table  knives,  3,500,000  forks,  3,738,000  spoons  and 
2,635,000  "housewives,"  for  Tommy  must  do  his 
own  sewing  in  the  trenches.  From  these  facts  you 
can  see  the  enormity  of  the  job  of  equipping  the 
American  army  on  anything  like  the  scale  that  the 
European  War  demands. 

So  much  for  the  Contracts  Branch.  It  has  done 
its  work.  Throughout  the  world  the  machines  in 
thousands  of  factories  are  humming  to  provide  the 
supplies  that  will  feed  and  clothe  the  British  armies. 


52  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

On  millions  of  acres  from  Canada  to  Australia 
crops  are  being  grown  and  harvested,  forests  felled 
and  flocks  shorn  to  the  same  consuming  end.  The 
Producer  has  qualified;  it  is  now  up  to  the  Dis- 
tributor to  take  up  the  task.  Thus  it  comes  about 
that  we  hitch  our  wagon  to  the  star  of  the  Quarter- 
master General  and  his  cohorts  and  see  how  the  sup- 
plies are  mobilised  and  sent  on  their  way  to  sustain 
and  to  clothe. 

At  once  you  find  yourself  in  contact  with  a  close- 
knit  and  perfectly  geared  system.  But  this  time  you 
are  nearer  to  actual  war.  You  meet  with  losses; 
you  touch  disaster;  you  comprehend  for  the  first 
time  the  wrack  and  agony  of  suspense.  You  find 
that  even  with  the  transport  of  the  unromantic  bis- 
cuit there  are  thrills  and  dangers. 

It  is  one  thing  to  order  supplies  from  the  safety 
and  comfort  of  an  ofifice  in  London  or  through  an 
agent  in  Montreal,  Chicago  or  Sydney;  it  is  quite 
another  to  get  that  material  across  the  perilous  seas 
to  its  destination. 

The  Quartermaster  General  picks  up  the  task  of 
Supply  from  the  moment  that  the  contract  is  made 
and  nurses  the  commodity  along  every  stage  of  its 
journey  toward  consumption.  This  means,  of 
course,  that  there  must  be  first,  the  closest  possible 
co-operation  between  the  two  departments;  second, 
the  most  intimate  co-ordination  between  the  over- 
seas forces  and  the  mobilising  and  distributing 
agencies.    The  whole  genius  of  organisation  is  dedi- 


ARMY  DEMAND  AND  SUPPLY        53 

cated  to  one  dynamic  purpose;  not  to  be  caught 
unawares.  Eternal  vigilance  and  team  work  are 
the  watchwords  of  these  sleepless  stewards  of  the 
soldier  stomach. 

Two  distinct  labours  confront  the  Quartermas- 
ter General.  One  is  to  get  the  supplies  mobilised 
in  England  (the  only  cargoes  that  go  straight  to 
France  are  bulk  stuff  like  oats  and  flour)  ;  the  other 
is  to  tranship  these  supplies  to  France  and  the 
other  theatres  of  war  in  sufficient  and  continuous 
quantities  to  maintain  the  armies. 

You  have  already  seen  how  the  army  needs  are 
made  known  through  the  Monthly  or  Trimonthly 
Demands.  But  these  demands  are  subject  to  daily, 
even  hourly  amendment.  Emergencies  arise  out  of 
the  swift  and  tragic  march  of  war  events  that  must 
be  quickly  dealt  with.     Here  are  some  instances : 

One  day  the  Quartermaster  General  got  a  tele- 
phone request  from  France  for  one  hundred  fathoms 
of  wire  rope  with  a  tensile  strength  of  twenty-five 
tons.  Such  a  rope  was  unheard  of.  It  later  de- 
veloped that  it  was  needed  to  haul  a  tank  out  of  a 
shell  hole.  The  only  shop  in  London  carrying  this 
cable  was  discovered,  and  it  was  on  the  way  to 
France  the  next  day. 

There  is  a  constant  string  of  requests  for  articles 
that  must  be  created  on  the  spur  of  the  demand.  At 
the  height  of  the  first  battle  of  the  Somme  the  ter- 
rific mud  made  it  necessary  to  bring  up  shells  on 
mule  and  horseback.     Trucks  were  useless  in  the 


54  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

sea  of  slush.  "Send  carriers  for  shells,"  was  the 
frantic  appeal  from  the  front.  The  Director  of 
Ordnance  and  Equipment  Stores  devised  a  scheme 
of  wooden  holders  connected  by  chains  which  could 
be  slung  over  the  pack  animal's  back.  In  forty- 
eight  hours  thousands  of  the  carriers  were  not  only 
under  construction  but  some  were  already  at  the 
field  of  battle. 

During  that  first  terrible  winter  of  war  when  the 
British  regular  soldier  lived  a  lifetime  of  horror  in 
the  frozen  trenches,  the  problem  of  a  portable  food 
container  that  would  keep  food  hot  had  to  be  solved. 
It  was  impossible  to  make  thermos  bottles  in  suffi- 
cient quantities  so  tin  tubs  were  requisitioned.  A 
layer  of  horse  hair — a  non-conductor — was  put  be- 
tween the  lining  and  it  met  the  requirements. 

About  this  time  came  the  first  attacks  of  "trench" 
or  frozen  feet,  not  "cold  feet"  in  the  American 
slang  vernacular,  however.  A  remedy  had  to  be 
found.  The  Department  chemists  got  the  request 
late  in  the  afternoon,  worked  all  night  compound- 
ing a  chemical  solution  and  20,000  gallons  were 
headed  for  the  front  the  following  day. 

But  irrespective  of  these  unexpected  variations 
from  the  even  and  nicely  calculated  course  of  army 
supply  there  is  always  the  supreme  responsibility  of 
keeping  the  structure  intact.  The  cornerstone  of 
this  structure  is  the  Reserve  which  is  a  definite 
quantity  of  food  calculated  to  feed  a  certain  num- 
ber of  troops  for  a  certain  time.     It  must  be  main- 


ARMY  DEMAND  AND  SUPPLY        55 

tained  at  all  hazards.  It  thus  becomes  the  Insur- 
ance against  breakdown  in  transport;  enemy  action 
— all  those  menaces  that  beset  the  lines  of  food 
communication. 

All  British  supply  depots  are  required  to  keep 
a  fixed  Reserve.  This  is  why  the  huge  assem- 
blages of  food  in  England  are  called  Supply  Re- 
serve Depots.  The  Reserve  is  always  designated  in 
terms  of  days.  Let  us  assume  for  the  purpose  of 
illustration  that  the  fixed  or  authorised  reserve  is 
thirty  days.  This  means  that  in  every  depot  or  base 
enough  essential  supplies  must  be  kept  to  feed  its 
dependent  army  for  thirty  days.  The  job,  there- 
fore, is  to  keep  tab  on  this  reserve.  Making  thirty 
days  the  authorised  reserve  gives  the  Quartermas- 
ter General  sufficient  leeway  to  replenish  stocks  even 
in  far-away  places  like  Salonika.  Here  you  have  the 
secret  of  maintaining  an  uninterrupted  supply  of 
food  for  millions  of  troops  scattered  in  the  four 
quarters  of  the  globe. 

In  order  to  know  just  where  he  stands  the  Quar- 
termaster General  must  reconcile  daily  needs 
(which  is  consumption),  actual  reserve  available  at 
home  and  abroad  and  supplies  contracted  for.  This 
requires  constant  juggling  but  it  has  all  been  re- 
duced to  such  a  precise  science  that  there  has  never 
been  a  break  in  the  chain. 

Here  is  where  the  co-ordination  between  the  Pro- 
duction and  Distribution  branches  of  the  Business 
of  War  proves  its  value.     One  of  the  links  is  the 


56  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

Weekly  Progress  Report.  It  is  a  form — filled  in 
with  a  typewriter — which  contains  a  list  of  all  the 
food  and  supplies  contracted  for.  It  is  really  a  book 
for  it  includes  an  index  of  items  and  the  page  on 
which  they  appear.  This  report,  which  is  fur- 
nished by  the  Surveyor  General  of  Supply  to  the 
Quartermaster  General,  literally  shows  "the  prog- 
ress made  each  week  towards  the  completion  of  con- 
tracts entered  into  for  supplies  for  the  Expedition- 
ary Forces."  I  quote  the  exact  title.  It  is  a  remark- 
ably efficient  exhibit — another  evidence  of  the  in- 
genuity of  the  supply  scheme. 

On  this  report  you  see  a  description  of  the  article 
ordered,  the  number  of  the  Demand  on  which  it 
originally  appears,  the  name  of  the  contractor,  the 
quantity  to  be  produced,  the  amount  already  deliv- 
ered, the  balance  due.  If  this  balance  is  to  be  de- 
livered in  weekly  or  monthly  instalments  the  pre- 
cise facts  are  stated.  By  looking  at  the  Progress  Re- 
port the  Quartermaster  General's  aide  who  has  to 
do  with  biscuits,  for  instance,  can  tell  what  the 
whole  biscuit  situation  is.  If  it  is  set  forth  that 
10,000,000  pounds  are  to  be  delivered  to  the  sup- 
ply depots  in  England  on  the  first  of  every  month 
he  can  plan  the  distribution  of  it  to  the  last  tin. 
So  with  every  other  item  on  the  list.  Since  the 
Progress  Report  meets  the  requirements  as  set  forth 
in  the  Monthly  Demand  there  is  seldom  any  sur- 
plus.  Waste  is  minimised. 

The  Progress  Report  is  just  one  cog  in  the  system 


ARMY  DEMAND  AND  SUPPLY        57 

of  Army  Supply  Intelligence  which  enables  the 
Quartermaster  General  to  sit  at  his  desk  in  London 
with  his  finger  on  the  control  of  the  whole  machine. 
I  will  now  show  how  it  works  in  connection  with 
the  Expeditionary  Force  in  France,  which  involves 
millions  of  men,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  animals 
and  makes,  so  far  as  bulk  is  concerned,  the  heaviest 
subsistence  demands.  Yet  it  is  supplied  as  easily 
as  if  it  were  one  fiftieth  the  size. 

Every  day  the  Quartermaster  General  receives  by 
wire  from  the  General  Headquarters  in  France  the 
Daily  State  of  Supplies  Report.  It  shows  the  num- 
ber of  days'  reserves  of  all  essential  supplies — food, 
forage  and  fuel — on  hand  at  noon  the  day  before  at 
all  the  Base  and  Advanced  Supply  Depots  in  France. 
It  also  shows  the  authorised  reserve ;  and  the  num- 
ber of  troops  and  animals  fed.  If  the  authorised 
reserve,  let  us  say,  is  30  days  and  X  Depot  reports 
ten  days'  supply  of  bacon  the  Quartermaster  Gen- 
eral wonders  why  that  reserve  is  not  kept  up.  He 
has  it  increased  at  once.  He  gets  a  similar  telegram 
from  every  other  theatre  of  war.  From  these  re- 
ports is  made  the  General  Supply  State  which  is  the 
document  to  which  I  referred  at  the  beginning  of 
this  book  and  which  summarises  the  British  supply 
state  everywhere. 

Another  document  which  shows  the  centralisa- 
tion of  supply  information  is  the  Report  of  Feeding 
Strength  which  is  sent  in  every  day  from  all  the 
armies.  This  is  necessary  because  of  the  variety  of 


58  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

the  demand  made  upon  the  feeding  facilities.  On 
this  sheet  you  can  see  the  numerical  strength  of 
every  army  unit  above  railhead  (which  means  the 
men  at  the  front)  ;  the  forces  on  the  lines  of  com- 
munication which  comprise  the  Army  Service  Corps, 
the  reserves,  and  the  troops  resting  after  having 
been  in  action;  hospital  patients,  medical  staff, 
nurses.  Allies,  civilians  and  prisoners  of  war.  All 
must  be  fed.  In  short,  the  total  gross  feeding 
strength  is  revealed  here.  One  distinctive  feature 
of  this  report  is  that  while  it  shows  every  mouth 
that  must  be  fed  in  France  it  also  shows  the  quan- 
tity of  food  "packed"  for  these  mouths;  "packed" 
means  the  quantities  sent  up  from  the  supply  depots. 
These  figures  should  equalise  each  other.  If  more 
food  is  "packed"  than  is  consumed  then  some  one 
must  answer  for  waste. 

This  is  the  system  for  France.  It  is  no  less  com- 
plete and  up  to  the  minute  for  Salonika,  Egypt, 
Africa  or  Mesopotamia,  where  the  food  must  travel 
thousands  of  miles  instead  of  the  comparatively  few 
leagues  across  the  Channel.  From  every  far-away 
overseas  force  comes  a  Daily  State  Telegram  called 
the  Urgency  Report,  which  gives  the  daily  state 
of  supplies  and  the  fixed  reserve  requirements.  If 
Salonika  wires  "Jam  23  ;  tea  20 ;  biscuit  15"  it  means 
that  she  has  twenty-three  days'  supply  of  jam,  twen- 
ty of  tea  and  fifteen  of  biscuit.  All  is  well,  for 
more  is  on  the  way.  But  if  she  wires  "Jam  5"  it 
.means  that  she  only  has  five  days'  supply  left.   The 


ARMY  DEMAND  AND  SUPPLY        59 

replenishment  of  her  stores  has  been  sunk  and  the 
Quartermaster  General  must  get  busy  to  build  up 
the  reserve.  By  the  process  that  I  have  just  outlined 
the  Quartermaster  General  is  absolute  master  of  the 
situation.  All  the  knowledge  of  demand  and  supply 
is  at  his  fingers'  ends  and  this  knowledge  not  only 
spells  power  but  provision. 

We  now  come  to  the  final  link  in  the  supply  chain 
so  far  as  England  is  concerned.  It  is  the  Supply 
Reserve  Depot  where  food  mobilisation,  prior  to 
shipment  to  the  overseas  forces  occurs.  The  Sup- 
ply Depot  had  its  origin  in  the  "food  magazines" 
inaugurated  by  Gustavus  Adolphus.  The  "Lion  of 
the  North"  would  be  bewildered,  however,  at  the 
extent  to  which  his  primitive  idea  of  army  supply 
segregation  has  grown  if  he  could  see  one  of  these 
institutions  to-day. 

There  are  various  Supply  Reserve  Depots  in  Eng- 
land. I  went  to  the  largest  because  it  was  also  the 
most  picturesque.  It  is  located  not  so  many  miles 
from  London — a  pleasant  and  historic  spot,  washed 
by  the  Thames,  where  John  Evelyn  lived  and  Sam- 
uel Pepys  often  came.  Here  dwelt  Peter  the  Great 
during  his  sojourn  in  England;  from  its  ancient 
wharves  Sir  Francis  Drake's  Golden  Hind  swung  at 
anchor  in  the  olden  days. 

In  August,  19 14,  this  place  was  a  moderately 
sized  cattle  market ;  to-day  it  is  a  supply  depot  with 
a  capacity  for  a  month's  rations  for  1,000,000  men 
and  375,000  horses.     It  ships  30,000  tons  of  sup- 


6o  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

plies  to  France  every  day.  Incidentally  it  also  car- 
ries provision  for  300,000  troops  training  in  that 
particular  part  of  England  and  their  30,000  ani- 
mals. Such  is  the  marvel  of  war  expansion  under 
the  pressure  of  incessant  demand. 

A  flood  of  supplies  pours  into  the  Depot  day  and 
night  by  rail,  barge  and  motor  truck.  It  is  a  dyna- 
mo of  energy  and  movement.  The  stuff  is  all  stored 
in  immense  warehouses  which  are  named  and  num- 
bered. It  is  then  repacked  according  to  the  needs 
of  troops  abroad  and  shipped  away  again.  The 
officer  in  charge  gets  a  copy  of  the  Monthly  De- 
mand of  the  overseas  forces.  He  knows,  therefore, 
what  he  must  provide.  He  also  receives  a  copy 
of  the  Progress  Report,  which  enables  him  to  know 
what  he  is  to  receive.  Once  more  you  get  the  usual 
example  of  complete  working  information. 

At  this  Depot  as  well  as  at  all  other  Supply 
Depots,  British  supply  organisation  repeats  itself. 
The  3,000  employes  are  manned  as  a  military  unit 
and  with  perfect  co-ordination.  There  is  a  Depart- 
ment of  Requirements  which  allots  quantities;  a 
Stores  Section  which  keeps  track  of  stocks  and  re- 
newals; a  Home  Section  which  looks  after  the  re- 
quirements of  the  Home  Forces  that  are  supplied; 
a  Foreign  Section  which  watches  overseas  Demands 
and  the  Progress  Report;  a  Movements  Bureau 
which  loads  and  unloads  the  freight  cars  and  keeps 
the  channels  of  traffic  clear;  a  Shipping  Branch 
which  deals  with  loading  and  tonnage. 


Wc/) 
OO 

?^^ 

^^ 

2  go 

UcoH 

OSS 


ARMY  DEMAND  AND  SUPPLY        6i 


Some  of  the  supplies  go  straight  to  France  by 
barge;  the  rest  is  railed  to  the  southern  ports  and 
loaded  on  ships.  Every  ship  carries  duplicate  in- 
voices of  the  cargo.  One  of  these  is  checked  up  at 
the  receiving  port  and  returned  to  the  shipper  as  a 
receipt ;  the  other  remains  at  the  receiving  port  and 
becomes  the  first  link  in  a  new  chain  of  accounting 
that  follows  the  supplies  to  their  final  destination. 

In  order  to  obtain  the  closest  possible  co-operation 
the  Commanding  Officer — designated  an  Assistant 
Director  of  Supplies — sends  a  Circular  Memoran- 
dum (mimeographed)  around  to  all  his  section 
heads  every  day  setting  forth  the  day's  require- 
ments in  every  department  with  special  reference 
to  transport.  Thus  the  biscuit  man  knows  what  the 
tinned  meat  man  is  doing  and  so  on.  It  enables 
everybody  to  work  together.  Likewise  there  is  a 
Daily  Progress  report  showing  what  has  been  done 
the  day  before. 

Each  day  a  report  on  receipts,  packing  and  ship- 
ments is  sent  to  the  Quartermaster  General;  every 
two  weeks  a  complete  "State  of  Supplies  Despatched 
Overseas"  is  made  up  showing  shipments  to  every 
port  indicating  the  quantities  sent. 

Every  device  known  to  modern  labour  saving  is 
in  operation  here.  Even  the  marking  on  the  pack- 
ing cases  is  in  keeping  with  the  system  that  rules. 
The  cases  for  France  are  marked  with  a  green  sham- 
rock; those  for  Salonika  are  labelled  with  yellow 
ink ;  for  Egypt  with  blue.    It  is  a  great  aid  when  a 


62  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

ship  must  be  loaded  in  a  hurry  as  is  always  the  case. 

One  detail  at  this  particular  Depot  will  show  the 
completeness  with  which  England  watches  the  ra- 
tions of  her  troops.  In  a  small  building  that 
crouches  between  two  towering  warehouses  is  a 
completely  equipped  laboratory  in  charge  of  tem- 
porary officers  who  are  experienced  chemists.  Every 
sample  of  food  submitted  to  the  Contracts  Branch 
is  tested  here,  and  what  is  more  to  the  point  all  the 
supplies  that  come  to  the  depot  are  tested  to  see  if 
they  are  up  to  the  standard.  The  specimens  of  oil^ 
pepper,  biscuit,  jam,  bacon,  baking  powder,  dried 
fruit,  tinned  meat  and  other  articles  are  taken  at 
random  from  the  incoming  bulk.  Woe  betide  the 
contractor  whose  goods  are  found  deficient! 

At  this  Depot  150,000  so-called  Iron  Rations  are 
packed  every  day  by  women.  These  are  the  rations 
(biscuit,  beef  tea  and  sugar  all  packed  in  tins)  that 
the  British  soldier  is  required  to  carry  in  his  haver- 
sack to  be  eaten  in  case  the  food  supply  in  the  field 
breaks  down.  Every  precaution  is  taken  to  keep 
Tommy  from  missing  a  single  meal. 

It  is  worth  adding  that  practically  the  only  regu- 
lar officer  at  the  Depot  I  have  described  is  the  Com- 
manding Officer.  All  the  rest  are  temporary  offi- 
cers— civilians  who  have  come  from  every  walk  of 
life  to  do  their  "bit."  You  will  find  engineers,  ac- 
countants, painters,  sculptors,  merchants,  barristers, 
architects,  lecturers,  secretaries  of  smart  clubs, 
manufacturers,  professional  cricketers  too  old  for 


ARMY  DEMAND  AND  SUPPLY        6$ 

fighting,  even  a  reformed  vaudeville  artist.  It  is 
true  throughout  the  whole  Supply  and  Transport 
Service. 

The  well-oiled  machine  which  feeds  and  supplies 
the  British  armies  and  which  has  just  been  taken 
apart  for  your  edification  would  operate  serenely, 
almost  automatically,  were  it  not  for  the  hazard  of 
shipping.  The  moment  you  reach  the  sea,  ancient 
"nurse  of  England,"  you  get  at  the  really  acute 
problem  of  supply  because  the  most  perfect  process 
of  provision  is  powerless  against  the  submarine. 
The  dangers  and  difficulties  of  water  transport  sur- 
round the  Businesss  of  War  with  constant  anxiety. 

Yet  the  British  system  has  stood  up  against  tor- 
pedo inroads  that  would  have  paralysed  an  organis- 
ation less  resilient.  Supply  transport  offers  a  shining 
mark  for  the  U-boat  because  not  less  than  150  ships 
fly  its  flag.  They  are  regulated  by  a  Shipping  Board 
which  meets  every  Thursday  at  the  War  Office.  At 
this  weekly  session  tonnage  requirements  are  dis- 
cussed and  allotted.  On  account  of  the  continual 
movement  of  troops  these  requirements  vary.  Def- 
erence is  always  made  to  food  and  munitions.  They 
have  the  right  of  way.  For  the  remaining  com- 
modities it  is  a  case  of  "give  and  take." 

The  first  question  to  be  settled  is  that  of  avail- 
able ports.  A  harbour  may  be  open  for  supply  ships 
to-day  and  closed  to-morrow  by  reason  of  mines, 
enemy  action  or  some  other  cause.  This  applies 
both  to  France  and  England.     The  ships  therefore 


64  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

must  be  fitted  to  the  ports.  Once  in  a  port  they 
must  be  unloaded  as  quickly  as  possible.  Shipping 
cannot  wait.  Tonnage  these  days  is  as  the  breath 
of  life. 

Because  of  the  incessant  sinkings  new  ships  must 
be  constantly  "found."  It  is  only  by  the  most  con- 
stant touch  with  all  shipping  movements  that  the 
pawns  can  be  successfully  shifted  on  this  animated 
and  momentous  chess  board. 

The  Quartermaster  General  has  created  an  elab- 
orate system  of  contact  with  all  supply  vessels  no 
matter  where  they  are.  Before  him  every  day  is  a 
Shipping  Sheet  containing  the  names  of  all  these 
ships,  just  where  they  are  and  what  they  are  carry- 
ing. If  a  vessel  loaded  with  tinned  meat  and  bound 
from  America  to  England  is  sunk  the  lost  cargo  is 
immediately  re-ordered  by  cable.  If  a  ship  laden 
with  supplies  for  the  overseas  forces  goes  down 
another  is  sent  out  at  once  with  a  duplicate  cargo. 
No  loss  is  permitted  to  remain  a  loss. 

The  check  on  forage  vessels  is  an  illuminating 
instance  of  the  incessant  watch  on  transport.  Take 
oats.  Before  the  Forage  Committee  (which  buys 
all  the  grain  and  fodder  and  which  is  a  part  of  the 
Quartermaster  General's  Service)  is  a  sheet  headed 
Oats  Situation.  At  the  top  is  printed  the  monthly 
requirements  for  France,  which  happens  to  be 
95,000  tons.  Below  is  a  schedule  of  the  actual 
supply  at  all  the  depots  in  France  in  terms  of  days. 
In  another  column  is  a  statement  of  all  oats  ships 


ARMY  DEMAND  AND  SUPPLY        65 

"advised,"  together  with  their  last  Admiralty-re- 
ported positions  at  sea  and  the  tonnage  of  their 
cargoes.  A  Daily  State  of  all  forage  shipments  is 
made  from  these  sheets. 

The  tragedies  of  the  torpedo  try  the  soul  of  the 
forces  behind  army  supply.  Out  of  the  daily  dramas 
of  trial  and  tribulation  come  little  epics  of  action; 
miracles  of  initiative  and  resource.  There  is  no 
time  for  parley  or  conference.  Contingencies  must 
be  met  as  they  happen.  Let  me  lay  bare  some  of 
these  episodes  of  efficiency  that  enliven  the  life  of 
the  Department : 

One  night  in  the  early  months  of  the  war  the 
telephone  rang  in  the  office  of  G.  M.  G.  6  at  the  War 
Office.  The  Colonel  in  charge  took  up  the  receiver. 
France  was  calling.  The  Commandant  of  a  large 
base  supply  depot  said  anxiously, 

"The  German  advance  has  made  our  three  supply 
bases  untenable.  We  must  have  a  new  port  base  by 
to-morrow  and  enough  supplies  to  feed  the  expedi- 
tionary force."  The  force  then  numbered  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  million  men. 

"All  right,"  replied  the  Colonel,  "it  shall  be 
done." 

He  called  up  the  Army  Shipping  Bureau,  where 
there  is  always  some  one  on  watch.  "Have  you 
ten  available  ships?"  he  asked. 

"Yes,"  was  the  reply. 

"Then  have  them  all  at at  six  o'clock  in  the 

morning,"  was  his  command. 


66  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

He  then  rang  up  three  Supply  Reserve  Depots 
and  ordered  the  shipment  of  supplies  on  to  this 
port,  special  trains.  At  noon  the  next  day  the  load- 
ed vessels  were  on  their  way  to  France.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  add  that  the  port  used  in  this  emer- 
gency is  the  one  where  the  first  American  Expedi- 
tionary force  landed,  and  which  is  now  used  by  our 
Government. 

Sinkings  always  call  for  swift  and  decisive  ac- 
tion. A  ship  loaded  with  flour  for  the  forces  in 
Mesopotamia  was  sunk  in  the  Mediterranean. 
Three  additional  ships  with  duplicates  of  this 
cargo  were  all  torpedoed  in  rapid  succession.  Mean- 
while the  supply  of  flour  for  General  Sir  Stanley 
Maude's  army  was  getting  dangerously  low.  By 
an  energetic  use  of  the  cable  enough  was  borrowed 
from  Egypt  to  tide  it  over  until  the  arrival  of  the 
fifth  ship,  which  broke  the  hoo-doo. 

Here  is  still  another  kind  of  emergency.  Last  win- 
ter a  big  blizzard  in  the  Eastern  American  States 
congested  railway  traffic  and  prevented  the  wheat 
trains  from  getting  into  Hoboken,  New  Jersey, 
where  the  British  grain  ships  load.  Wheat  sud- 
denly became  very  scarce  in  England.  The  Forage 
Board,  which  knew  of  all  available  sources  bought 
up  the  supply  and  there  was  no  discomfort.  The 
men  of  the  "Q.  M.  G."  always  find  a  way. 

Again,  one  of  the  most  important  ports  in  France 
was  blocked  by  the  sinking  of  a  ship  at  the  mouth 
of  the  harbour.  At  this  port  was  a  base  supply  depot 


ARMY  DEMAND  AND  SUPPLY   ^y 

that  fed  one-fourth  of  the  British  army  in  France. 
To  open  a  new  port  was  impossible.  Overnight  the 
Quartermaster  General's  Department  shifted  the 
whole  shipping  scheme.  A  dozen  vessels  were  di- 
verted to  other  ports  and  the  supplies  rushed  North 
on  special  trains.  There  was  not  an  hour's  delay 
in  the  procession  of  food  to  the  front. 

So  it  goes.  Each  day  brings  its  exactions  and 
its  exigencies  and  likewise  its  compensation  in  the 
shape  of  victory  over  threatened  disaster.  The 
prosaic  task  of  maintaining  army  supply  becomes 
invested  with  a  glamour  of  adventure  no  less  stir- 
ring and  romantic  than  the  feats  of  the  firing  line 
it  feeds. 

In  the  last  analysis,  War  is  Worry  and  Work. 


Ill — Feeding  the  Fighting  Millions 

THE  troops  had  gone  "over  the  top"  that 
morning.  Shells  still  rent  the  air  and 
there  was  tension  all  up  and  down  the 
line.  Nearly  all  the  casualties  had  been  "cleared" 
but  the  list  was  growing  every  hour.  Across 
"No  Man's  Land"  flared  the  ominous  white 
signals  that  indicated  impending  enemy  move- 
ments; there  might  be  reprisals  any  moment.  It 
was  still  a  ticklish  corner  for  a  civilian  to  find  him- 
self in. 

Suddenly  the  appetising  odour  of  hot  stew  smote 
the  nostrils,  overcoming  the  acrid  smell  of  smoke 
that  hung  like  a  pall  over  the  leprous  landscape. 
It  was  like  a  message  from  home. 

"Here  comes  the  'chow,'  "  spoke  up  a  husky 
young  Canadian. 

Hardly  were  the  words  out  of  his  mouth  before 
the  food  squad  was  in  our  midst  with  steaming 
"dixies"  and  the  thrill  of  war  was  forgotten  in  the 
unromantic  consumption  of  beef  and  potatoes, 
washed  down  with  tea.  All  the  time  the  German 
guns  boomed  an  incessant  "strafe." 

Late  that  afternoon  I  made  my  way  back  to 
headquarters  under  the  mantle  of  a  friendly  haze. 
Just  behind  the  first  line  trenches  I  saw  a  sinister, 
crimson  splash  on  the  ground. 

68 


FEEDING  THE  FIGHTING  MILLIONS    69 

"What's  that?"  I  asked  the  captain,  who  was 
showing  me  around. 

"One  of  the  food  squad  was  'done  in'  here,"  was 
his  laconic  reply. 

A  few  hundred  yards  away  we  struck  the  light 
railway  that  is  used  generally  in  the  war  zone  to 
transport  supplies.  A  well-aimed  shell  had  blown 
up  fifteen  or  twenty  yards  of  track  only  an  hour 
before,  yet  a  detail  of  engineers  was  already  out 
at  work  repairing  it. 

In  this  little  picture  you  visualise  the  hazard  and 
hardship  that  attend  the  bringing  up  of  Tommy's 
food  in  France.  What  happened  in  the  bloody  angle 
of  the  battle  line  that  I  have  just  described  is  hap- 
pening every  day  and  every  night  wherever  the 
British  soldier  sets  up  his  fighting  abode.  Regard- 
less of  the  deadly  storm  that  beats  about  him  he 
never  misses  a  meal.  His  rations — even  the  tin 
dishes  that  contain  them — are  cogs  in  a  ceaseless 
and  unfailing  system  of  provision  that  is  no  less 
effective  under  fire  than  back  at  the  original  source 
of  supply.  From  the  moment  that  the  food  and 
equipment  reach  the  port  of  arrival  in  France  until 
it  is  distributed  to  the  soldier  in  the  field  it  is  under 
incessant  supervision  and  accounting. 

In  a  previous  chapter  I  explained  the  organisa- 
tion which  enables  the  Quartermaster  General  to 
all  the  British  Forces  to  sit  at  a  desk  in  London 
with  his  finger  on  the  pulse  of  the  whole  Supply  and 
Transport  situation.    I  then  dealt  with  the  Province\ 


70  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

of  Production,  whose  titanic  demands  draw  upon 
the  whole  world  of  output.  Its  seat  of  Government 
is  the  War  Office  in  London. 

We  now  enter  the  Domain  of  Distribution,  whose 
capital  is  that  best  known  and  least  known  of  all 
Allied  war  establishments,  the  General  Headquar- 
ters of  the  British  Armies  in  France,  or  *'G.  H.  Q," 
as  it  is  more  commonly  known.  From  this  pic- 
turesque, time-worn  building  with  its  cobblestone 
court,  which  has  jingled  with  the  spurs  of  many 
generations  of  French  soldiers  in  the  making,  radi- 
ates the  conduct  and  control  of  a  marvellous  ma- 
chine— a  Subsidiary  Corporation  in  the  Business 
of  War,  but  just  as  many-sided  and  efficient  as  the 
Parent  Corporation  which  stocks  its  shelves. 

When  you  cross  the  frontiers  of  the  Domain  of 
Distribution  you,  become  a  spectator  of  the  vast 
Drama  of  Life  and  Death,  whose  stage  is  a  far- 
flung  fighting  front,  and  whose  curtain  is  a  Curtain 
of  Fire.  You  hear  the  shriek  of  shells;  you  touch 
the  tragedy  and  terror  of  actual  combat;  you  see  the 
wounds  of  war  gaping  before  you.  Here  the  ration 
is  as  vital  as  the  shell.  Subsistence  means  Exist- 
ence itself! 

To  grasp  clearly  the  whole  scheme  of  British 
Army  Supply  in  France  you  must  first  get  the  de- 
tails of  the  organisation  in  your  mind.  To  begin 
with  there  is  at  General  Headquarters  an  exact  re- 
plica of  the  Quartermaster  General's  organisation 
at  the  War  Office.     Every  head  of  Department  in 


FEEDING  THE  FIGHTING  MILLIONS     71 

London  has  what  is  called  an  "opposite  number" 
in  France.  It  is  headed  by  Quartermaster  General, 
Lieutenant  General  Sir  Ronald  Maxwell,  who 
bears  the  same  relation  to  the  supply  force  in  the 
field  that  Lieutenant  General  Sir  John  S.  Cowans 
bears  to  all  the  forces  everywhere.  He  is  the  rank- 
ing subsistence  officer  in  France. 

With  the  rest  of  the  organisation,  however,  there 
is  a  slight  variation.  In  the  War  Office  Major 
General  A.  R.  Crofton  Atkins  is  Director  of  Supply 
and  Transport,  combining  the  executive  responsi- 
bility for  both  branches  of  the  service.  In  France 
the  task  is  so  colossal  in  actual  interpretation  that 
there  is  a  separate  Director  of  Supply  and  a  sepa- 
rate Director  of  Transport.  For  the  purpose  of 
this  article  we  are  concerned  solely  with  the  prob- 
lem of  Supply.  Transport  will  be  dealt  with  later  on. 

This  means  that  the  dominant  personality  of  this 
narrative  is  Brigadier  General  E.  E.  Carter,  C.  B., 
Director  of  Supplies.  His  desk  is  the  nerve  centre 
of  the  organisation  that  feeds  the  front  and  the 
rear.  He  is  big,  broad,  up-standing  and  wears  a  uni- 
form as  if  he  were  born  in  it.  In  the  South  African 
War  he  was  Assistant  Director  of  Transport,  yet  he 
turned  as  swiftly  and  as  competently  to  the  task  of 
Supply  as  if  he  had  been  trained  for  it  all  his  life. 
It  is  a  tribute  to  the  versatility  of  the  British  regu- 
lar. Ask  him  what  rules  lie  behind  the  whole 
system  that  he  galvanises  and  he  will  say: 

"Supplies  are  valueless  unless  they  are  transport- 


y2  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

able  by  every  conceivable  means  and  reach  their 
destination  without  delay." 

In  this  sentence  you  get  the  keynote  of  the  whole 
Supply  organisation  in  France.  "Deliver  the 
Goods"  is  the  slogan  that  drives  men  and  motors 
day  and  night. 

Let  us  now  examine  the  task  that  is  put  up  to 
General  Carter.  Every  day  and  every  night  supply 
ships  are  arriving  at  various  ports  in  France,  laden 
with  food  and  equipment  for  the  millions  of  fight- 
ing men  and  forage  and  fuel  for  their  horses  and 
mechanical  transport.  This  immense  flood  of  sup- 
plies must  be  imloaded,  some  of  it  stored  away  in 
warehouses  to  keep  up  the  fixed  reserve  as  insur- 
ance against  breakdown  in  transport;  the  rest  of  it 
goes  up  the  line  to  maintain  the  war  machine. 
Every  pound  and  parcel  must  be  registered  and  ac- 
counted for  throughout  its  journey  from  arrival  to 
consumption.  This  means  keeping  track  of  millions 
of  tons  of  an  immense  variety  of  articles. 

With  Distribution,  as  with  Production,  you  find 
the  triumph  of  scientific  business  methods.  In  Gen- 
eral Carter's  office,  for  example,  is  a  huge  chart, 
which  tells  the  whole  story  of  the  extraordinary 
team  work  that  stretches  from  port  to  trench.  Noth- 
ing is  left  to  chance.  You  will  discover  among 
other  things  a  scheme  of  auditing  that  would  do 
credit  to  a  department  store.  You  will  see  a  relent- 
less "follow-up"  system  that  pursues  the  wayward 
freight  car,  runs  down  the  missing  motor  truck. 


C<'lyright   by   J.   Russell   &■   Sons,   London. 


MAJOR  GENERAL  E.  E.  CARTER 
Director   of    Supply    of    the    British    Annies    in    France 


FEEDING  THE  FIGHTING  MILLIONS    73 

lets  no  guilty  package  escape  and  stands  as  a  sleep- 
less guardian  of  goods.  Books  are  kept  and  ac- 
counts standardised.  Centralisation  is  the  watch- 
word. The  Director  of  Supply  can  sit  at  his  office 
at  "G.  H.  Q."  and  know  at  any  hour  of  day  or 
night  what  ships  and  their  cargoes  are  headed  for 
his  ports;  the  exact  amount  of  supplies  in  pounds, 
gallons  and  cases  that  are  piled  up  at  every  one  of 
his  many  supply  depots  and  precisely  what  inroads 
are  to  be  made  upon  them  during  the  next  twenty- 
four  hours.  In  other  words  the  well-nigh  infalli- 
ble machinery  of  Army  Supply  Intelligence  is  at 
work  all  the  time. 

Now  all  these  remarkable  results  are  only  ob- 
tainable through  one  agency — Co-operation.  I  have 
rarely  seen  anywhere  such  team  work  as  obtains  in 
the  dramatisation  of  the  Army  Supply  idea  in 
France.  It  is  just  as  if  a  monster  jobbing  business 
had  been  reared  by  the  British  Government  and 
dedicated  to  meeting  the  requirements  in  the  field. 
Wherever  you  turn  you  find  the  parallel  with  trade. 

Here  as  elsewhere  in  the  Commissariat  the  help- 
ful pyramid  points  the  way.  At  the  apex  of  it  is 
the  Director  of  Supply,  who  occupies  the  position 
of  Vice  President  and  General  Manager,  the  Quar- 
termaster in  the  Field  being  the  President.  Rank- 
ing next  to  the  Director  are  three  Deputy  Directors 
of  Supplies.  One  has  charge  of  the  Inspection  of 
all  supplies;  a  second  is  the  Chief  Office  Assistant, 
who  corresponds  to  an  Office  Manager  in  an  Ameri- 


74  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

can  business;  the  third  is  the  head  of  the  so-called 
Investigation  Department,  which  audits  accounts 
and  deals  with  Finance  and  Economy. 

The  Deputy  Director  of  Supplies  in  charge  of  the 
office  has  three  assistants  who  rank  as  Assistant 
Directors  of  Supplies.  The  first  of  these  deputies 
deals  with  the  all-important  matter  of  Demands. 
It  is  to  him  that  the  needs  of  the  armies  in  the 
field  are  made  known,  and  he  in  turn  transmits  the 
Demand  covering  these  needs  to  the  Quartermaster 
General  in  London,  who  provides  the  supplies 
through  the  Surveyor  General  of  Supply. 

The  second  Assistant  Director  of  Supplies  is 
charged  with  the  supervision  of  Shipping  and 
Transportation,  while  the  third  has  to  do  with  Per- 
sonnel. This  group  of  officers  comprises  the  Sup- 
ply Directorate.  It  corresponds  precisely  with  the 
Board  of  Directors  of  a  Corporation,  each  Director 
being  the  head  of  a  department.  This  Board  meets 
every  day.  Every  man,  therefore,  knows  what 
his  colleagues  are  doing,  and  is  in  touch  with  the 
whole  field  supply  situation. 

This  Supreme  Court  of  Supply  is  merely  the 
Headquarters  Organisation.  For  all  practical  pur- 
poses it  is  duplicated  in  the  field.  One  section  is  at 
the  front,  where  each  one  of  the  five  armies  has 
its  own  Deputy  Director  of  Supply  and  Transport. 
On  the  so-called  Lines  of  Communication — the 
water,  rail  or  public  roads  along  which  the  Army 
and  the  supplies  travel — there  is  still  another  Sup- 


FEEDING  THE  FIGHTING  MILLIONS     75 


ply  Machine,  including  a  Deputy  Director  of  Sup- 
plies for  the  Northern  Line,  and  a  corresponding 
executive  for  the  Southern  Line. 

This  brings  us  to  the  whole  layout  of  Supply, 
which  is  slet  forth  on  what  may  well  be  called  The 
Map  of  Distribution  in  France.  There  are  many 
remarkable  charts  and  diagrams  in  the  scheme  of 
Army  Provision,  but  none  exceeds  this  one  in 
efficiency  and  detail.  A  child  could  understand  it. 
It  incarnates  scientific  business  organisation. 

Spread  it  out  before  you,  and  you  can  see  in  red, 
blue  and  green  lines  and  a  succession  of  coloured 
circles,  triangles  and  squares  the  whole  scheme  of 
supplying  and  equipping  the  Armies  from  the  wharf 
in  the  French  port  straight  through  all  the  processes 
and  repacking  and  transshipping  up  to  the  first  line 
trenches.  Every  line  on  the  map  has  a  caption  that 
explains  precisely  the  activity  that  happens  on  it.  It 
may  be  the  shipping  of  bulk  forage  and  grocery 
trains  from  a  base  port  to  an  Advanced  Depot.  It 
may  be  an  indication  of  the  route  of  meat  supplies, 
packed  in  detail  at  the  wharf  and  bound  for  a 
freight  station.  It  may  reveal  the  movement  of  coal 
from  the  mines  to  the  Rail  Head,  or  it  may  empha- 
sise in  a  red  circle  that  X  Base  is  used  solely  for 
canned  goods.  I  give  these  facts  merely  to  show 
that  the  system  was  on  paper  before  it  was  trans- 
lated into  practice. 

Now  let  us  see  how  it  works  in  actual  operation. 
For  the  purpose  of  Army  Supply  the  whole  of 


76  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

Northern  France  has  been  divided  into  two  dis- 
tricts. One  is  the  Northern  Line  of  Communica- 
tion, and  includes  two  major  ports  of  entry  and  a 
minor  one.  These  ports  feed  and  supply  three  of 
the  armies.  On  the  Southern  Line  are  three  major 
ports  which  feed,  fuel  and  supply  the  two  remain- 
ing British  Armies.  All  the  ports  are  called  Base 
Supply  Depots.  By  reason  of  the  proximity  of 
the  Northern  Ports  to  the  fronts  of  the  armies, 
there  is  a  slight  difference  between  the  organisation 
of  the  Northern  and  Southern  Lines. 

This  difference  lies  in  the  fact  that  on  the  North- 
ern Lines  the  food  practically  goes  straight  from 
the  Base  Depot  to  the  Rail  Head — that  is,  to  the 
terminus  of  the  railway  line,  while  on  the  Southern 
Line  it  goes  in  bulk  to  what  is  called  an  Advanced 
Base  Supply  Depot,  where  it  is  repacked  into  Divi- 
sional Trains,  each  one  supplying  the  needs  of  two 
Divisions  and  sent  on  to  Rail  Head.  At  the  Rail 
Head  the  system  of  distribution  is  the  same  for 
both  lines.  Here  the  supplies  are  unloaded  on 
motor  trucks,  and  sent  to  what  is  called  a  Refilling 
Point,  where  they  are  in  turn  transferred  to  horse- 
drawn  wagons  and  taken  up  to  the  trenches.  This, 
in  brief,  represents  the  main  itinerary  of  the  food 
from  the  time  of  its  arrival  until  it  reaches  the  Quar- 
termaster of  the  fighting  unit,  usually  a  Brigade 
Officer,  who  distributes  it  among  the  Regiments  (or 
Battalions  as  they  are  known  in  the  British  Army). 
The  miracle  of  all  this  shipping  and  reshipping. 


FEEDING  THE  FIGHTING  MILLIONS     77 

packing  and  repacking,  is  that  there  is  a  definite  rec- 
ord and  check  on  every  tin  of  beef  until  it  reaches 
the  kettle  or  the  pot. 

There  is  still  another  slight  difference  between  the 
Northern  and  Southern  Lines.  At  the  former  all 
kinds  of  food  and  commodities  are  received  at  the 
same  ports,  while  at  the  latter  each  port  specialises. 
This  means  that  in  the  North  a  Base  Supply  Depot 
houses  petrol,  groceries,  meat  and  forage,  while  in 
the  South  one  port  deals  exclusively  with  forage, 
another  with  petrol  and  cased  goods  and  the  third 
with  bread  and  Ordnance  Stores.  Here,  then,  you 
have  a  general  bird's-eye  view  of  the  Domain  Dis- 
tribution. 

The  whole  operation  is  of  peculiar  interest  and 
value  to  the  United  States  because  our  oversea^ 
troops  face  precisely  the  same  conditions,  both  as 
to  ports  and  lines  of  communication.  In  fact,  the 
American  Expeditionary  Force  is  using  an  aban- 
doned Base  Supply  Depot,  established  by  the  Brit- 
ish in  the  early  days  of  the  war. 

But  we  cannot  go  into  the  feeding  and  supply- 
ing of  the  armies  without  first  finding  out  what 
the  tools  of  the  trade  are.  With  fighting  these  tools 
are  men  and  guns ;  with  Supply  and  Transport  they 
are,  in  the  main,  men,  motors  and  wagons.  The 
men  who  comprise  the  Army  Behind  the  Army  are 
the  Army  Service  Corps — the  unsung  heroes  of  the 
hard-fought  battles  with  wind,  mud,  rain,  shells  and 


78  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

every  other  menace  that  besets  the  transport  of  sup- 
plies under  actual  war  conditions. 

The  story  of  the  Army  Service  Corps  is  in  itself 
a  romance  not  without  thrills  and  heroism.  It  be- 
gan with  Wellington's  Royal  Wagon  Teams;  later 
became  the  Commissariat  and  Transport  in  the 
Egyptian  Campaign  and  had  its  baptism  of  blood 
in  its  present  form  in  the  Boer  War.  For  years  it 
was  a  sort  of  Cinderella  of  the  Army,  rejected  and 
despised  by  the  men  of  the  line.  There  is  caste  in 
War  just  a§  there  is  in  Society.  Yet  the  aristo- 
crats of  the  forces  would  be  impotent  without  the 
"Underground  Cavalry,"  as  the  Army  Service 
Corps  is  sometimes  called. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  war  it  numbered  less 
than  10,000  men  and  a  few  hundred  officers.  To- 
day it  is  more  than  thirty  times  that  number — a 
host  greater  than  the  Iron  Duke  ever  commanded — 
one  that  vies  in  strength  with  Napoleon's  mightiest 
array.  You  comprehend  the  scope  of  Supply  and 
Transport  and  the  millions  that  they  serve  when 
it  takes  such  an  army  to  fetch  and  carry  alone. 

There  is  no  space  here  to  tell  how  the  Army 
Service  Corps  is  recruited  and  drilled ;  how  the  men 
are  assembled  and  weeded  out  according  to  their 
previous  civil  experience  in  the  huge  training  camps 
in  England;  how  a  farm  hand  becomes  the  driver 
of  a  horse-wagon;  and  the  one-time  chauffeur  of  a 
peer's  limousine  in  London  becomes  the  driver  of 
a  five-ton  motor   truck   in   France;   how  grocers' 


FEEDING  THE  FIGHTING  MILLIONS     79 

clerks  develop  into  Supply  Depot  stackers ;  how  bro- 
kers, bankers,  expert  accountants  and  business  men 
in  general  are  trained  to  be  the  officers  of  these  bat- 
talions. These  men  from  the  ranks  of  trade  be- 
come the  "Temporary  Officers,"  to  whom  Britain 
owes  so  much. 

There  are  Schools  of  Instruction  in  France  at 
the  Base  Supply  Depots  where  both  officers  and 
men  get  a  final  course  of  intensive  training.  The 
men  are  put  through  the  paces  in  the  handling  of 
horses,  harness  and  wagons  and  the  up-keep  of  me- 
chanical transport.  The  officers  are  sent  to  school 
where  there  are  daily  lectures  and  where  they  are 
taught  how  to  take  their  places  as  cogs  in  the  whole 
system  of  Provision  and  Accounting.  There  is  a 
series  of  text  books  for  these  schools  just  like  the 
text  books  used  in  a  university.  The  officers  are 
required  to  pass  an  examination  and  if  they  fail 
they  are  sent  back  home. 

One  of  these  text  books — and  it  will  give  you 
some  idea  of  the  thoroughness  of  the  course — is 
called  "The  Ready  Reckoner."  In  this  book  a 
Supply  Officer  is  shown  how  to  divide  up  rations. 
He  is  shown,  for  example,  that  if  160  complete 
daily  rations  are  issued  to  him  he  can  find  out  the 
bacon  allowance  by  dividing  this  by  four,  which 
gives  him  40  pounds,  or  the  exact  amount  of  bacon 
required.  He  is  further  shown  that  if  he  divides 
the  bacon  result  by  two,  he  can  get  the  butter,  cheese 
and  oatmeal  allowance,  which  is  20  pounds  each. 


8o  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

The  whole  system  enables  the  conduct  of  the  com- 
missariat to  become  mistake-proof. 

No  Class  A  men  are  now  used  in  the  Army  Ser- 
vice Corps.  Class  A  men  are  fit  for  fighting.  In 
the  early  days  of  the  war  there  were  many  of  them 
on  the  Lines  of  Communication,  but  as  the  armies 
expanded  and  the  losses  grew  they  were  all  weeded 
out.  Thus  in  the  "A.  S.  C."  you  find  thousands 
of  middle-aged  patriots  who  are  doing  the  work 
of  younger  men. 

Nor  is  all  this  patriotism  confined  to  the  middle- 
aged.  I  was  talking  one  day  to  the  Commanding 
Officer  of  the  largest  Base  Supply  Depots  in  France 
when  an  erect,  white-haired  man  wearing  the  single 
star  of  a  subaltern  came  up,  saluted  and  gave  a 
message  in  precise  military  fashion.  When  he  was 
through  he  clicked  his  heels  together,  saluted  again, 
and  with  a  "Thank  you,  sir"  made  ofif. 

"Do  you  know  who  that  officer  is?"  the  Colonel 
asked  of  me. 

"No,"  I  replied. 

"He  is  my  father." 

In  this  case  father  was  seventy-one  years  old, 
and  a  retired  country  squire,  but,  like  many  of  his 
countrymen,  he  felt  that  he  had  to  be  doing  some- 
thing.   It  is  this  sort  of  spirit  that  will  win  the  war. 

One  more  highly  important  detail  must  be  mas- 
tered before  we  can  proceed  with  the  operation  of 
the  Supply  and  Transport  in  the  field.  This  detail 
deals  with  the  most  important  freight  that  Trans- 


FEEDING  THE  FIGHTING  MILLIONS     8i 

port  is  called  upon  to  convey.  I  mean,  of  course, 
food  and  its  accessories.  Here  we  reach  the  one 
war  subject  of  universal  interest.  Everybody  eats; 
therefore,  everybody  is  interested  in  the  kind  and 
quantity  of  food  that  the  soldier  gets.  We  will  halt 
our  line  of  march,  therefore,  and  take  a  look  at 
Tommy's  larder. 

What  most  people  do  not  realise  is  that  Thomas 
Atkins  is  probably  the  best  nourished  soldier  in 
the  world.  He  is  fed  like  the  proverbial  fighting 
cock.  Moltke  once  said  that  "no  army  food  is  too 
expensive."  This  conjunction,  laid  down  by  a  mas- 
ter of  warcraft,  is  followed  to  the  letter.  There  is 
no  scandal  of  embalmed  beef  about  the  British 
Commissariat.  The  soldiers  get  the  best  that  the 
market  affords  and  lots  of  it.  Officers  and  men 
have  precisely  the  same  ration.  I  have  eaten  at 
many  a  Tommy's  mess  at  the  front  and  behind  the 
lines  and  I  have  always  found  the  food  abundant 
and  excellent.  Indeed,  after  courting  eternal  indi- 
gestion with  French  war  bread  (it  is  one  of  the  real 
horrors  of  war)  it  is  always  a  luxury  to  get  the 
field-baked  white  bread  which  is  part  of  the  Brit- 
ish army  ration. 

The  soldier's  daily  ration  has  been  scientifically 
worked  out  by  the  best  food  experts  of  England. 
In  the  Boer  War  it  was  one  and  one-fourth  pounds 
of  biscuit,  one  pound  of  fresh  meat  or  one  pound 
of  tinned  meat,  four  ounces  of  jam,  three  ounces 
of    sugar,    two    ounces    of    desiccated   vegetables, 


82  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

one-half  ounce  of  tea,  half  an  ounce  of  coffee  and 
pepper  and  salt.  This,  however,  was  hermit's  fare 
compared  with  the  almost  infinite  variety  of  food 
available  for  the  fighting  men  to-day,  because,  as 
you  may  recall,  there  are  exactly  four  hundred 
and  fifty  items  on  the  Quartermaster  General's  list 
of  Supplies. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  war  the  Boer 
War  ration  was  immediately  reinforced  by  four 
ounces  of  bacon,  three  ounces  of  cheese,  extra  tea 
and  one-eighth  of  a  tin  of  condensed  milk.  This 
ration  was  the  same  for  the  men  training  at  home 
and  in  France.  Later  a  ration  allowance  of  eight 
cents  a  day  for  each  man  was  made  to  take  the 
place  of  part  of  the  home  ration,  and  to  be  spent 
under  the  direction  of  the  Officers  of  the  Unit. 

Early  in  191 7  a  very  radical  amendment  was 
made  in  the  ration  scale  in  France.  Two  rations  were 
established ;  one  for  the  troops  at  the  fighting  front, 
who  had  to  depend  upon  what  is  issued  to  them 
and  who  undergo  severe  physical  hardships,  and 
another,  and  slightly  smaller  ration  for  the  troops 
on  the  Lines  of  Communication.  The  food  for  the 
fighting  men  is  practically  the  same  as  for  the  men 
in  the  rear.  The  only  difference  is  that  they  get 
more  of  it.  The  fighting  or  "Field  Ration"  costs 
forty-five  cents  per  day  per  man,  while  the  so-called 
"L.  of  C.  Ration"  costs  thirty-nine  cents. 

Meat,  of  course,  constitutes  an  important  item 
in  the  stoking  of  the  soldier's  stomach.     The  Brit- 


FEEDING  THE  FIGHTING  MILLIONS     83 

ish  Tommy  is  a  carnivorous  animal,  and  must  have 
his  beef.  The  normal  daily  ration  for  the  fighting 
man  is  one  pound  of  fresh  or  frozen  meat.  Three 
days  out  of  every  seven  he  also  gets  a  small  portion 
of  the  so-called  "M.  and  V."  ration,  which  is  meat 
and  vegetables,  cooked  and  canned.  Four  days  out 
of  seven,  instead  of  the  "M.  and  V."  ration  he  gets  a 
similar  portion  of  canned  pork  and  beans.  There  is 
also  an  allowance  of  four  ounces  of  bacon,  which 
is  served  at  breakfast. 

Bread  is  a  very  important  item.  The  regular 
daily  allowance  is  one  pound  of  fresh  bread  or  ten 
ounces  of  biscuit.  Usually  the  bread  ration  is  so 
arranged  as  to  include  seventy-five  per  cent  of 
bread  and  twenty-five  per  cent  of  biscuit. 

Other  items  in  the  normal  daily  allowance  for 
the  troops  at  the  front  are  ten  ounces  of  rice,  two 
ounces  of  butter,  which  is  served  three  times  a 
week,  three  ounces  of  jam,  five-eighths  of  an  ounce 
of  tea  (or  coffee  when  desired),  two  ounces  of 
cheese,  two  ounces  of  oatmeal  three  times  a  week, 
three  ounces  of  sugar,  one  ounce  of  condensed  milk, 
an  ounce  of  pickles  three  times  a  week,  two  ounces 
of  potatoes,  eight  ounces  of  fresh  vegetables  when 
obtainable,  or  two  ounces  of  dried  vegetables  as 
a  substitute,  salt,  pepper  and  mustard.  As  a  luxury 
each  man  gets  two  ounces  of  smoking  tobacco  or 
cigarettes  once  a  week,  and  a  box  of  matches  three 
times  during  the  fortnight. 

Rum  is  served  at  the  discretion  of  the  General 


84  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

Officer  commanding.  Its  issue  depends  upon  just 
what  the  troops  are  doing.  In  very  cold  weather 
a  nip  is  given  out  every  day,  whether  the  men  are 
in  the  first  Hne  trenches  or  behind.  Rum  is  always 
issued,  however,  in  that  ghastly  moment  just  before 
day  break,  when  the  troops  "stand  to"  with  ears, 
eyes  and  heart  alert,  waiting  for  the  enemy  attack 
that  sometimes  comes  and  sometimes  does  not.  No 
ordeal,  not  even  going  "over  the  top,"  is  such  a 
strain  on  nerves  as  this  moment  of  tense  expect- 
ancy. The  most  copper-riveted  of  prohibitionists 
would  not  begrudge  Tommy  his  wee  drop  of  con- 
solation at  this  hour  of  dread  and  dawn. 

The  "L.  of  C.  Ration,"  which  is  also  served  to 
the  "G.  H.  Q."  troops,  is  precisely  the  same  as  this 
except  that  instead  of  a  pound  of  fresh  or  frozen 
meat  each  day,  only  twelve  ounces  are  issued.  The 
issue  of  the  remaining  items  on  the  list  is  on  a 
corresponding  scale  of  reduction. 

The  ration  that  I  have  described  is  the  regular 
issue.  It  has  become,  however,  a  sort  of  elastic  in- 
stitution, adapting  itself  to  season  and  locality.  At 
some  of  the  huge  camps  the  men  raise  their  own 
vegetables,  the  garden  being  tended  by  the  perma- 
nent force.  At  one  camp  in  France  I  saw  a  pig-sty 
and  a  rabbit  warren  which  enriches  the  diet  and 
provides  extra  luxuries  for  the  men,  because  some 
of  the  meat  is  sold  to  the  natives. 

Then,  too,  a  so-called  System  of  Substitution 
adds  to  the  variety  of  Tommy's  food.    Last  sum- 


FEEDING  THE  FIGHTING  MILLIONS     85 

mer  when  bacon  was  scarce  all  over  England,  sau- 
sage, fish,  rabbits  and  brawn  (or  chopped  meat) 
were  substituted  for  the  home  forces.  The  War 
Office  now  controls  a  whole  chain  of  sausage  fac- 
tories, and  a  sausage  issue  takes  the  place  of  fresh 
meat  one  or  two  days  a  week  in  the  field.  This 
will  mean  a  saving  of  five  million  dollars  a  year 
to  the  government.  When  I  left  France  the  Director 
of  Supply  was  establishing  piggeries  to  maintain 
a  steady  supply  of  bacon. 

Long  experience  with  the  feeding  of  soldiers  has 
taught  the  food  experts  that  the  best  way  to  keep 
men  fit  is  to  vary  their  diet  as  much  as  possible; 
hence  the  substitution  is  carried  out  to  the  last  de- 
gree. Sardines,  or  tined  herring  in  tomatoes,  or 
canned  veal  loaf  often  take  the  place  of  preserved 
meat  at  the  mid-day  meal,  while  Cambridge  sau- 
sage or  roast  sausage  is  used  in  lieu  of  bacon  at 
breakfast. 

The  British  Tommy,  unlike  the  French  poilu,  has 
two  big  meals  a  day.  He  has  his  bacon  or  tinned 
meat  of  some  kind,  bread  and  jam  for  breakfast, 
while  at  lunch  he  has  stew  or  "bully  beef,"  potatoes, 
vegetables  and  always  a  dessert,  more  often  a  pud- 
ding of  some  kind.  His  evening  meal  comes  under 
the  head  of  "tea"  and  includes  cold  meat,  bread 
and  jam.  In  the  trenches  supper  is  always  hot. 
At  all  three  meals  he  has  his  option  of  tea  or  coffee. 
These  are  the  standard  menus,  subject  always  to 


86  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 


amendment  by  reason  of  the  system  of  substitution 
that  I  have  described. 

Now,  if  the  "Field"  and  "L.  of  C.  Rations"  were 
the  only  food  issues  the  task  of  provision  would 
be  comparatively  easy.  But  the  British  Armies  in 
France  to-day  are  such  a  cosmopolitan  assemblage 
that  the  matter  of  diet  is  as  complicated  as  that  of 
a  World  Food  Congress  recruited  from  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  universe.  It  results  from  the  fact  that 
when  Britain  sent  out  her  trumpet  call  throughout 
the  Empire,  all  the  peoples  of  her  dominions  came 
flocking  to  the  standard.  They  represent  every  race 
under  the  British  flag  and  this  nieans  that  white, 
brown,  yellow  and  black  men  are  geared  up  to  the 
Great  Cause.  The  Brahmin,  Mohammedan,  China- 
man, Kaffir,  Egyptian,  Fijian,  the  East  Indian,  West 
Indian  and  South  African  all  meet  at  John  Bull's 
mess  table.  With  the  exception  of  the  East  Indian 
Cavalry  they  are  enlisted  in  the  Labor  Battalions. 

You  have  a  conflict  of  religion,  taste,  habit  and 
custom,  and  every  one  of  these  eccentricities,  born 
of  climate,  temperament  and  tradition,  must  be  met 
and  appeased.  If  not  the  fighter  or  laborer  is  dis- 
satisfed  and  his  efficiency  is  impaired.  Hence  a 
separate  and  distinct  ration  is  issued  to  every  one 
of  these  foreign  groups.  At  one  Base  Supply  Depot 
exactly  seventeen  different  diets  are  supplied. 

The  Indian  personnel,  for  example,  has  a  ration 
v/hich  consists  of  atta,  which  is  mealie  meal;  dhal 
(a  split  pea),  ghi,  or  nut  oil,  which  is  a  substitute 


FEEDING  THE  FIGHTING  MILLIONS     87 

for  butter;  gur,  a  native  sugar;  mixed  spices,  fresh 
vegetables  and  fresh  meat. 

The  meat  for  the  East  India  troops  is  obtained 
in  very  picturesque  fashion.  The  East  Indian  will 
only  eat  goat  and  sheep  meat,  and  this  only  when 
the  animal  is  killed  according  to  native  rites.  Near 
one  of  the  British  Base  Depots  in  France  is  a  huge 
goat  and  sheep  farm,  which  is  conducted  entirely 
for  the  native  troops.  Every  day  you  can  see  beard- 
ed and  turbaned  priests  slitting  the  throats  of  the 
beasts  with  much  Oriental  ceremony.  When  the 
natives  get  their  meat  they  know  it  is  not  profane. 
No  British  Quartermaster  would  dare  to  try  to  de- 
ceive them. 

The  Fijians  have  a  ration  of  frozen  meat,  rice, 
sugar,  fresh  vegetables,  margarine  or  some  other 
edible  fat,  while  the  Chinese  are  content  with  a 
little  meat  and  a  large  amount  of  rice  and  bread. 
One  of  the  luxuries  of  the  Chinese  diet  is  nut  oil. 
Lentils,  cheese,  fresh  vegetables  and  bread  form  the 
larger  part  of  the  menu  of  the  Egyptian  labor  corps. 
So  it  goes.  Every  taste  must  be  pandered  to.  It  is 
the  price  that  must  be  paid  to  keep  the  huge  labor 
machine  oiled  and  going. 

Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  in  connection  with  field 
rations  that  there  is  also  a  separate  diet  for  the 
German  prisoners  of  war,  who  are  technically 
divided  into  what  is  known  as  "P.  of  W.  Com- 
panies," and  segregated  in  camps  surrounded  by 
barbed  wire  fences.     The  British  have  found  that 


88  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

it  is  both  practical  and  expedient  to  let  the  German 
prisoners  run  their  own  messes.  The  normal  daily 
ration  of  a  captured  Hun  is  nine  ounces  of  bread, 
six  ounces  of  fresh  or  frozen  meat  five  days  a 
week  and  ten  ounces  of  salt-cured  herrings,  sprats 
or  smelts  two  days  a  week.  He  also  gets  a  half  an 
ounce  of  tea  or  coffee,  an  ounce  of  sugar,  four 
ounces  of  potatoes,  two  ounces  of  turnips  and  peas 
or  beans,  three  ounces  of  rice,  two  of  oatmeal  and 
a  little  jam  and  cheese.  Recently  the  British  have 
succeeded  in  making  the  so-called  schwarzbrod, 
which  is  the  familiar  black  bread  of  Germany.  This 
not  only  makes  the  Boche  happier  but  saves  con- 
siderable money  to  the  Government. 

Then,  too,  the  British  issue  food  to  the  French, 
Belgians,  Portuguese  and  American  troops  in  some 
instances,  and  also  to  the  Women's  Army  Auxiliary 
Corps,  or  the  "Wacs"  as  the  Tommies  call  them. 
You  can  see,  therefore,  that  with  all  these  different 
types  of  rations,  with  the  Iron  Ration — the  tinned 
emergency  food  that  every  soldier  carries  in  his 
haversack — and  the  Train  Ration  which  is  given 
to  the  troops  for  consumption  while  travelling  on 
boats  or  trains,  there  is  an  immense  amount  of  de- 
tail to  the  provision  of  the  inner  man  alone. 

Fortunately,  animals  have  no  choice  of  food,  and 
the  issue  of  forage  is  a  simple  matter.  Heavy 
draught  horses  get  seventeen  pounds  of  oats  and 
fifteen  pounds  of  hay  a  day,  while  officers'  mounts 


FEEDING  THE  FIGHTING  MILLIONS    89 

and  other  horses  get  twelve  pounds  each  of  oats  and 
hay.  This  is  also  the  forage  ration  for  mules  of 
fifteen  hands  and  upwards  that  are  employed  on 
heavy  draught  work. 


IV — From  Ship  to  Trench 


YOU  have  now  seen  the  kind  of  food  that  man 
and  beast  require.  You  have  also  had  a  swift 
panoramic  glimpse  of  how  it  is  transported 
from  ship  to  stomach.  We  can  now  go  into  the 
work  of  this  system  which  receives,  checks,  ac- 
counts, stores  and  sets  it  down  at  the  very  threshold 
of  consumption. 

Perhaps  the  best  way  to  continue  the  parallel  with 
business  would  be  to  regard  the  huge  Base  Supply 
Depot  as  the  Wholesale  Branches  and  the  so-called 
Detail  Issue  Stores  where  the  units  on  the  Lines 
of  Communication  get  their  rations  as  the  Retail 
Branches.  Keep  this  distinction  in  your  mind,  and 
it  will  be  easier  to  follow  the  sequence  of  food 
events. 

Any  port  will  serve  to  begin  with,  because  the 
system  is  the  same  for  all.  Let  us  first  take  the 
largest  of  all  the  ports  of  entry  in  France.  It  is  on 
the  Northern  Line,  and,  therefore,  specialises  in  sup- 
plies. In  this  particular  instance  the  specialties  are 
forage,  frozen  meat  and  flour. 

Since  this  port  is  on  the  Southern  Line  and 
therefore  somewhat  different  in  executive  organi- 
sation from  the  Northern  Line,  it  may  be  well  to 
say  that  the  ranking  officer  is  technically  known  as 
the  Officer  Commanding  Base  Supply  Depot.     His 

90 


FROM  SHIP  TO  TRENCH  91 

chief  is  an  Assistant  Director  of  Supplies,  whose 
headquarters .  are  at  the  main  Advanced  Base  Sup- 
ply Depot  that  he  serves,  and  v^ho  in  turn  reports 
to  the  Director  of  Supplies  at  General  Headquar- 
ters. 

A  Base  Supply  Depot  is  simply  a  collection  of 
huge  sheds,  or  hangars,  as  the  British  call  them. 
In  this  particular  case  they  are  all  near  the  docks, 
where  the  goods  can  be  readily  removed  from  the 
ship  and  immediately  stacked.  Formerly  all  the 
work  of  Supply  and  Transport  from  the  time  a 
supply  ship  reached  port  was  done  by  the  Army 
Service  Corps.  In  the  autumn  of  19 17  the  job  of 
unloading  the  vessels  was  taken  over  by  the  Direc- 
tor General  of  Transportation,  who  supervises  the 
unloading.  The  actual  piling  up  of  the  supplies  is 
done  under  the  direction  of  the  Department  of 
Labour,  which  controls  the  many  native  labour  bat- 
talions. But  the  moment  the  supplies  are  piled  up 
in  the  hangar  they  pass  into  the  hands  of  the  Army 
Service  Corps  and  remain  in  its  keeping  until  it 
reaches  the  kitchen,  the  stable  or  the  garage. 

As  soon  as  a  supply  ship  touches  at  a  Base  Depot 
it  is  caught  up  in  the  toils  of  a  perfect  system.  First 
of  all,  one  of  the  duplicate  invoices  of  cargo  that 
accompanies  the  vessel  is  checked  up  and  sent  back 
to  the  port  of  departure  in  England  or  Canada  as  a 
receipt  that  the  goods  were  delivered.  The  other 
duplicate  invoice  now  becomes  the  first  link  of  an 


92  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

endless  chain  of  accounting  that  lasts  until  the  sup- 
plies are  consumed  or  destroyed. 

Probe  into  the  whole  Base  Supply  System  and 
you  find  that  the  motto  unfurled  at  the  flag-pole  is 
"Cut  the  Carry,"  which  means  that  economy  of 
time  and  labour  in  the  handling  of  the  immense 
stores  is  the  keynote  of  progress.  Everything  is  bent 
toward  this  end.  Goods  are  stacked  up  so  that 
they  can  be  counted  swiftly  and  easily.  For  this 
reason  every  pile  of  hay,  oats,  flour,  or  canned 
goods  has,  hanging  alongside,  what  is  known  as  a 
Tallyboard.  This  board  contains  the  letter  of  the 
shed  or  hangar  (each  shed  has  a  letter),  the  num- 
ber of  the  block  (every  different  kind  of  commod- 
ity has  a  block  or  a  street)  and  every  stack  in  that 
block  has  a  number.  Additions  or  withdrawals 
from  any  block  or  stack  of  supplies  are  recorded 
on  it  and  can  be  seen  at  once  by  the  checkers-up. 
You  could  make  a  complete  inventory  of  a  Base 
Supply  Depot  in  an  incredibly  short  time. 

One  reason  is  that  the  stacking  of  supplies  is  sci- 
entifically done.  In  harmony  with  the  perfection 
of  detail  that  marks  the  whole  system,  the  Director 
of  Supply  has  prepared  a  Manual  for  the  Army 
Service  Corps  called  "The  Stacking  and  Storing 
of  Supplies,"  which  shows  with  simple  and  compre- 
hensive text  and  with  cross-section  illustrations  just 
how  stacks  of  cased  goods,  sacks  and  bales  of  hay 
can  be  piled  up  so  as  to  expedite  accounting  and  un- 
packing.    From  this  you  learn  that  there  are  such 


FROM  SHIP  TO  TRENCH  93 

things  a-s  "Pillar  Pile"  for  cases;  and  'Tower 
Stacking"  which  enables  the  supplies  to  be  carried 
up  to  the  roof. 

One  chapter  in  this  book  shows  how  much  space 
is  required  for  storing  and  stacking  rations  for 
given  numbers  of  men  and  horses.  A  man,  for  ex- 
ample, can  look  at  a  pile  of  boxes  and  see  at  a  glance 
how  many  troops  it  will  feed. 

Here,  as  elsewhere  throughout  the  whole  Empire 
of  Supply  and  Transport,  absolutely  nothing  is  left 
to  chance.  All  Supply  Officers,  for  example,  no 
matter  where  stationed  and  who  have  the  slightest 
contact  with  Supplies  must  master  a  book  entitled 
"Financial,  Economic  and  Accountancy  Regulations 
and  Departmental  Instructions."  Every  detail  of 
work  is  here  specifically  explained.  It  thus  becomes 
the  Bible  of  Supply.  You  get  the  keynote  of  the 
whole  Commissariat  when  you  find  that  one  of 
the  first  paragraphs  in  the  book  is  this : 

"In  time  of  peace  the  interests  of  economy, 
while  entrusted  in  various  degrees  to  adminis- 
trative and  other  officers,  are  also  safeguarded 
by  various  checks  and  limitations,  and  in  particu- 
lar by  the  total  amounts  voted  by  Parliament 
under  the  several  heads  of  the  estimates.  During 
war,  however,  not  only  are  these  limitations  to  a 
certain  extent  removed,  but  the  total  expenditure 
is  on  a  vastly  larger  scale.  The  possibilities  of 
economy  open  to  officers  are  consequently  in- 


94  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

creased,  and  the  elimination  of  waste  in  every 
branch  of  the  Service  becomes  a  matter  of  pri- 
mary importance,  and  should  be  the  object  of 
particular  concern  to  each  individual  officer." 

Now  let  us  see  what  happens  at  a  Base  Supply 
Depot.  The  one  I  shall  use  for  illustration  is  main- 
ly used  in  the  second  largest  hangar  in  the  world, 
which  is  more  than  half  a  mile  in  length  and  over 
six  hundred  feet  wide.  It  adjoins  the  biggest  dock 
in  France  and  is  like  a  complete  freight  city  under 
one  roof.  I  have  seen  it  when  it  contained  80,000 
tons  of  supplies,  of  which  30,000  tons  were  in  oats, 
20,000  tons  in  hay,  while  the  rest  was  flour  and 
cased  goods. 

The  hangar  was  a  label  of  foreign  tongues.  You 
heard  Kafifir  boys  singing  as  they  carried  sacks  of 
oats  from  ship  to  stack;  a  song  of  the  Nile  came 
from  the  Egyptian  coolies,  who  hummed  as  they 
staggered  under  bales  of  hay;  you  caught  the  note 
of  a  sentimental  German  lullaby  whistled  by  a  pris- 
oner of  war,  trundling  a  truck  of  canned  groceries. 
Here  was  a  whole  world  of  labour,  recruited  from 
friend  and  foe  alike,  and  marshalled  to  the  stupen- 
dous task  of  feeding  the  British  soldier.  Amid  an 
almost  indescribable  din  and  what  seemed  to  be 
the  wildest  confusion  there  was  admirable  control. 

The  Commanding  Officer  of  the  Depot,  sitting 
at  his  desk  in  a  little  frame  office  that  is  almost 
lost  between  his  towering  ramparts  of  food  and  for- 


FROM  SHIP  TO  TRENCH  95 

age,  is  absolute  master  of  the  tumultuous  situation. 
He  is  on  his  job  at  eight  o'clock.  At  eight-thirty 
he  has  a  conference  with  representatives  of  the  Ad- 
miralty, the  Director  of  Docks,  the  Director  of 
Labour  and  the  Director  General  of  Transportation. 
Thus  he  knows  what  cargoes  are  to  be  landed  and 
what  human  and  other  machinery  are  to  handle 
them. 

More  than  this  he  also  knows  every  hour  pre- 
cisely how  his  whole  monster  business  stands  down 
to  the  last  case  of  jam.  How  is  this  possible  when 
from  20,000  to  30,000  tons  of  supplies  arrive  and 
depart  daily  and  when  all  this  goods  is  being  con- 
stantly transferred  from  one  place  to  another? 

The  answer  is  quite  easy.  Such  a  complete  check 
is  kept  on  every  pound  of  incoming  and  outgoing 
stuff  that  the  "O.  C,"  as  the  Officer  Commanding 
is  called,  is  able  to  send  his  chief  at  the  Advanced 
Supply  Depot  what  is  called  The  Daily  Stock  Wire, 
which  tells  the  precise  amount  of  supplies  on  hand 
and  what  is  due  to  arrive  the  next  day.  This  is 
achieved  by  balancing  Receipts,  as  the  incoming 
supplies  are  termed,  and  Issues,  as  the  outgoing 
supplies  are  known.  The  surplus  is  technically 
known  as  Remains.  This  is  obtained  through  a 
simple  but  effective  process.  Each  group  of  com- 
modities is  in  charge  of  a  Section  Officer,  who 
renders  a  Daily  State  of  his  department  every  night. 
This  sets  forth  specifically  the  amount  of  food  he 
has  on  hand  the  preceding  night,  the  day's  Receipts 


96  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

and  Issues,  the  Transfers  or  Issues  for  local  troops 
and  the  Remains,  at  the  time  of  making  the  report. 
The  sum  of  these  Daily  States  furnishes  the  in- 
formation conveyed  in  the  Daily  Stock  Wire, 

The  Daily  Stock  Wire  is  necessary  to  the  Deputy 
Director  of  Supplies  at  the  Advanced  Base  Supply 
Depot,  who  must  know  just  how  much  goods  he 
can  draw  on.  Remember  at  this  point,  that  the  ad- 
vanced Base  Supply  Depot  is  the  link  between  Base 
Supply  Depot  and  the  Regulating  Station 
where  the  Supply  Trains  for  the  front  are  made  up. 
If  there  is  a  sudden  increase  of  troops  in  the  field 
and  more  supply  trains  must  be  made  up  every  day 
the  Deputy  Director  of  Supplies  knows  immediately 
that  demands  for  more  food  can  be  filled  at  once. 
It  is  part  of  the  perfect  interlocking  of  supply 
forces. 

The  supplies  from  the  Base  Supply  Depot  which 
I  have  just  described — and  it  is  typical  of  all  in 
the  Southern  Line — are  shipped  in  bulk;  that  is,  in 
solid  trains  of  bread,  meat,  forage,  flour,  petrol  or 
groceries.  These  trains  with  the  exception  of  those 
carrying  groceries,  go  direct  to  the  Regulating  Sta- 
tion, where  the  freight  is  repacked  onto  the  Divi- 
sional Trains.  The  grocery  trains  are  unpacked  at 
the  Advanced  Base  Supply  Depot  and  the  freight 
sorted  out  according  to  Divisional  needs. 

One  reason  why  there  is  such  a  constant  proces- 
sion of  bulk  trains  out  of  the  Base  Supply  Depots 
is  that  there  must  be  a  quick  turnover  at  the  ports 


FROM  SHIP  TO  TRENCH  97 

because  vessels  are  coming  in  every  day  and  a  con- 
gestion of  shipping  would  be  fatal.  One  day's 
hang-up  might  clog  the  supply  machine  all  the  way 
up  to  the  first  line  trenches.  These  bulk  trains  are 
loaded  inside  the  hangars.  The  stacks  are  all  piled 
alongside  the  tracks  so  that  loading  is  expedited. 
"Cut  the  Carry"  is  carried  out  to  the  last  degree. 

Every  bulk  train  from  any  Base  Supply  Depot 
on  the  Southern  Line  includes  bread.  This  is  be- 
cause no  Base  is  complete  without  a  Field  Bakery. 
Bread,  when  all  is  said  and  done,  is  the  soldier's 
staff  of  life.  He  must  get  it  in  continuous  and 
enormous  quantities.  This  means  that  the  dough 
troughs  and  the  ovens  must  be  constantly  in  action. 

These  bakeries  are  all  operated  by  Army  Service 
Corps  men,  most  of  them  practical  bakers,  before 
they  went  to  the  war.  These  establishments  are 
marvels  of  output.  They  are  all  practically  alike 
in  operation,  although  in  some  the  dough  is  kneaded 
by  hand  and  in  others  by  machinery.  The  standard 
loaf  for  the  troops  weighs  two  pounds,  which  is  two 
normal  daily  bread  rations.  The  average  output 
of  the  largest  Field  Bakery  is  220,000  loaves  a  day, 
or  440,000  rations.    They  work  day  and  night. 

These  Field  Bakeries  are  models  of  production. 
It  takes  just  three  hours  for  the  flour  to  pass  from 
barrel  to  baked  bread.  Once  baked  it  is  stacked 
in  bins  for  twenty-four  hours,  then  sacked,  weighed, 
loaded  into  a  freight  truck  and  rushed  off  to  the 
Advanced  Base  Supply  Depot.     The  railway  tracks 


98  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

come  right  into  the  bakery  sheds.  No  army  bread 
is  served  to  the  troops  until  it  is  ninety-six  hours 
old.  Part  of  this  time,  however,  is  consumed  in 
transit. 

The  same  scientific  scrutiny  is  placed  over  the 
army  bread  as  over  every  other  article  that  Tommy 
eats.  At  these  Field  Bakeries  you  will  find  com- 
plete laboratories  which  bake  and  wash  and  test 
samples  of  all  the  flour  to  ascertain  its  ingredients. 
One  reason  for  this  close  watch  is  that  the  soldier's 
bread — unlike  the  bread  of  civil  life — must  do  con- 
siderable travelling.  If  there  is  an  excess  of  sharp- 
pointed  bran  in  the  flour  it  will  puncture  the  cells 
of  gluten  on  the  road  and  impair  the  nutritive  qual- 
ity of  the  loaf.  In  other  words,  the  flour  must  be 
so  mixed  as  to  get  a  sufficient  gluten  percentage  to 
withstand  the  hardship  of  much  rough  jolting  and 
rehandling  on  the  railroad.  You  will  also  find  in 
these  laboratories  a  dough  meter,  which  analyses 
samples  of  all  the  dough  that  is  mixed.  The  big 
fact  about  the  Field  Bakery,  aside  from  the  enor- 
mous output,  is  that  the  soldier's  bread  is  safe- 
guarded by  every  device  known  to  science. 

Even  these  Field  Bakeries  do  not  escape  the  thrill 
of  actual  war.  In  the  Dardanelles  campaign  the 
bakers  were  as  much  exposed  to  fire  as  the  fighting 
men.  At  Helles  a  bakery  was  established  on  the 
peninsula  and  was  maintained  within  four  miles 
of  the  Turkish  lines  during  the  whole  period  of 
occupation. 


FROM  SHIP  TO  TRENCH  99 

All  the  Base  Supply  Depots  are  not  under  cover. 
The  principal  Base  on  the  Northern  Line,  where 
in  one  day  I  saw  40,000  tons  of  oats  and  32,000 
tons  of  hay,  is  an  outdoor  town  and  where  you 
can  wander  through  acres  of  supplies.  Here  the 
oats  are  conveyed  by  suction  from  the  holds  of  the 
ships  into  sacks,  which  are  stacked  up  to  a  height 
of  sometimes  a  hundred  feet.  They  are  protected 
from  the  weather  by  tarpauHns. 

In  order  to  prevent  spontaneous  combustion 
among  the  huge  mountains  of  hay  the  temperature 
of  the  stacks  is  taken  regularly,  with  thermometers 
fastened  to  the  ends  of  long  poles.  These  thermom- 
eters are  stuck  into  the  heart  of  the  pile  every  two 
weeks. 

At  the  Base  Supply  Depots  on  the  Northern  Line 
the  Officer  Commanding  is  an  Assistant  Director  of 
Supplies,  because  these  Bases  and  their  Advanced 
Bases  are  practically  located  in  the  same  place. 
Their  Regulating  Stations  are  also  close  at  hand 
because  the  armies  they  feed  are  much  nearer  to 
their  source  of  supply  than  those  fed  by  the  South- 
ern Lines,  where  the  Base  and  Advanced  Depot  are 
miles  apart. 

We  now  turn  from  the  Wholesale  Branch  of  the 
Business  of  War  as  represented  by  the  Base  Supply 
Depot  to  the  Retail  End,  which  is  the  Detail  Issue 
Store.  Here  is  where  the  Army  becomes  a  shop- 
keeper and  runs  a  miniature  Department  Store. 

The  Detail  Issue  Store  is  the  place  where  the 


100  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

food  for  troops  not  at  the  Army  Front  is  given  out. 
This  means  that  it  supplies  the  whole  Army  Service 
Corps,  the  troops  at  the  Rest  Camps,  w^here  the 
drafts  from  England  remain  for  a  brief  interval 
before  going  to  the  front;  Labor  Battalions,  Pris- 
oners of  War,  the  Woman's  Auxiliary  Army  Corps 
and  any  other  persons  employed  on  the  Lines  of 
Communication,  These  Stores  are  always  attached 
to  the  Base  or  the  Advanced  Supply  Depots,  They 
are  literally  what  the  word  implies — a  Store,  with 
counters,  shelves  for  goods,  bins  for  vegetables  and 
a  fresh  meat  department,  presided  over  by  men 
who  were  butchers  in  civil  life.  The  establishments 
have  regular  hours  for  doing  business,  the  usual 
time  of  issue  being  during  the  forenoon,  when  the 
men  from  the  unit's  quartermaster  detail  come  with 
their  sacks  (if  a  small  force  is  to  be  fed),  or  motor 
trucks  if  the  camp  is  large,  for  supplies  for  the 
next  day. 

Let  us  see  how  this  works.  Assume  that  one 
hundred  men  of  the  Army  Service  Corps  attached 
to  a  Base  Depot  need  food  for  Wednesday.  A  cor- 
poral and  a  detail  of  privates  comes  the  day  before 
in  a  motor  truck  to  the  Detail  Issue  Store  with 
what  is  called  an  Indent  for  Rations.  This  is  a 
printed  form  (used  throughout  the  British  Armies) 
constituting  a  formal  Demand  for  supplies.  It 
contains  the  name  of  the  unit,  its  location,  the  num- 
ber of  rations  required,  the  specific  list  of  troops, 
officers  and  men  to  be  fed,  the  kind  of  animals  em- 


FROM  SHIP  TO  TRENCH  loi 

ployed,  the  fuel  and  light  required  and  rum  and 
tobacco  needed. 

The  Corporal  hands  the  Indent  to  the  Chief 
Issuing  Clerk,  who  details  one  or  more  men,  as  the 
quantity  requires,  to  assemble  the  supplies.  The  In- 
dent for  Rations  is  issued  in  duplicate.  One  of 
these  is  signed  by  the  Issuing  Clerk,  and  is  returned 
to  the  Unit  as  a  voucher.  The  other,  signed  by  the 
receiving  soldier,  becomes  the  Store's  memorandum 
of  issue.  , 

Where  the  Unit  to  be  supplied  is  very  large  the 
Indent  is  handed  in  the  day  before,  and  the  sup- 
plies assembled  during  the  afternoon.  When  the 
Corporal  and  his  detail  come  the  next  morning  he 
merely  gives  the  name  of  the  Unit  and  everything 
is  ready  for  him. 

These  Detail  Issue  Stores  vary  in  size  and  scope. 
Some  only  issue  to  fifty  men,  while  others  carry 
rations  for  sixty  thousand.  One  detail  in  connec- 
tion with  them  is  of  unique  interest.  Since  all  the 
stores  carry  rum  in  stock,  it  is  necessary  to  protect 
it  from  the  ever-present  thirst  of  the  soldier.  The 
cases  of  rum  are  never  marked  with  the  name  of 
their  real  contents.  They  are  stamped  with  a  secret 
mark,  which  is  changed  from  time  to  time  and 
only  known  to  the  officers  and  sergeants  in  charge. 

We  are  ready  to  start  on  the  first  lap  of  the 
journey  of  the  food  to  the  front.  Our  objective 
point  is  the  Advanced  Base  Supply  Depot.  Behind 
us  at  the  Base  ports  we  have  left  the  din  of  the 


I02  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

docks,  the  bustle  of  unloading,  the  spectacle  of  the 
busy  hangar — the  whole  humming  round  of  pack- 
ing and  unpacking.  As  we  go  forward  into  the 
Domain  of  Distribution  we  find  that  with  army 
supplies  life  is  just  one  repacking  after  another. 
But  every  cycle  of  it  has  such  a  definite  place  in 
a  definite  system  that  no  time  or  labour  is  lost. 

An  Advanced  Base  Supply  Depot  is  the  place 
where  the  bulk  trains  are  unloaded  and  the  freight 
reloaded  into  sectional  trains  that  then  go  on  to  the 
front  to  supply  the  armies  in  action.  The  unit  of 
supply  for  distribution  to  the  front  is  a  Division, 
which,  at  full  strength,  is  20,000  men  and  5,800 
nurses.  This  is  why  the  trains  that  go  up  to  the 
fighting  line  are  called  Standard  Divisional  Pack 
Train.  Each  train  carries  enough  food  to  supply 
two  complete  Divisions  for  a  day. 

The  average  number  of  trains  loaded  daily  at  an 
Advanced  Depot  is  twenty-one,  which  means  that 
the  normal  establishment  sends  up  food  every 
twenty-four  hours  for  840,000  men.  During  the 
temporary  breakdown  of  one  of  the  northern  ports 
a  certain  Advanced  Base  Supply  Depot  had  to  take 
over  the  work  of  another  similar  station,  and  for 
two  months  it  fed  1,300,000  men  every  day. 

You  cannot  explain  the  work  of  an  Advanced 
Base  Supply  Depot,  however,  without  also  explain- 
ing the  functions  of  a  Regulating  Station.  These 
two  establishments  are  affinities.  One  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  the  other.    The  reason  is  that  the  Divi- 


FROM  SHIP  TO  TRENCH  103 

slonal  Pack  Trains  are  only  made  up  in  part  at  the 
Advanced  Base  Supply  Depots,  where  the  groceries 
are  packed  and  completed  at  the  Regulating  Sta- 
tion, where,  as  you  have  already  seen,  the  bulk  pet- 
rol, forage,  fuel  and  meat  trains  arrive  direct  from 
the  Base  Supply  Depot,  Each  bulk  train  contrib- 
utes its  quota  to  the  Divisional  Pack  Trains.  When 
the  latter  leaves  the  Regulating  Station  it  has  its 
full,  authorised  quantity  of  supplies  for  the  two 
Divisions  it  feeds.  This  means  that  it  carries  food 
of  all  kinds,  including  meat,  fuel,  forage,  petrol, 
medical  comforts,  small  ordnance  stores,  disinfec- 
tants and  a  postal  car,  because  letters  are  almost  as 
welcome  as  things  to  eat. 

The  moment  you  touch  the  trains  you  encounter 
another  one  of  the  compact  organisations  whose 
work  helps  to  make  up  the  sum  total  of  army  sup- 
ply in  France.  Without  adequate  steam  transporta- 
tion facilities  nothing  could  be  accomplished.  The 
British  have  had  to  take  over,  reorganise  and  regal- 
vanise  the  whole  railway  system  of  Northern 
France.  All  operations  are  under  the  control  of  a 
Director  General  of  Transportation.  General  W. 
A.  Nash,  a  seasoned  railroad  man,  who  has  under 
him  an  army  of  trained  railroad  men  from  all  parts 
of  the  Empire.  This  organisation  was  literally  put 
on  the  map  by  that  remarkable  individual,  Sir  Eric 
Geddes,  who  has  become  England's  Handy  Man  for 
all  jobs,  and  who  is  now  First  Lord  of  the  Ad- 
miralty. 


104  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

From  a  chateau  from  "G.  H.  O."  General  Nash 
runs  the  trains  from  Base  to  Rail  Head.  All  the 
lines  are  subject  to  army  control.  It  is  just  as  if 
the  New  York  Central,  the  Pennsylvania,  the  Read- 
ing, the  Baltimore  and  Ohio,  the  Erie  and  the  New 
York,  New  Haven  and  Hartford  had  all  been  mob- 
ilised for  army  work,  and  were  under  the  direction 
of  the  War  Department  at  Washington.  In  order 
to  haul  the  immense  quantity  of  supplies  hundreds 
of  engines  have  been  brought  over  from  England 
and  Canada.  They  are  all  marked  R.  O.  D.,  which 
means  Railroad  Operating  Department.  Thousands 
of  freight  cars  have  been  commandeered  from 
every  line  in  England.  They  are  stamped  "W.  D." 
which  means  War  Department,  and  also  show  a 
white  arrow  which  is  the  symbol  throughout  the 
War  Zone  of  that  mighty  organisation. 

Some  notion  of  the  scope  of  army  railway  opera- 
tions in  France  is  obtained  when  I  say  that  the 
average  daily  number  of  trains  operated  is  220  and 
that  the  number  of  loaded  cars  conveyed  each 
w^eek  is  35,000.  These  are  standard  gauge  trains. 
The  British  Government  also  operates  hundreds  of 
miles  of  so-called  light  or  narrow  gauge  railways, 
which  often  run  almost  up  to  the  trenches.  They 
carry  food,  ammunition,  engineer's  stores,  broken 
stone  and  other  material  for  road  making,  and 
trench  supports,  both  wood  and  iron. 

The  system  in  operation  at  an  Advanced  Base 
Supply  Depot  is  a  model  of  time  and  labour  saving. 


FROM  SHIP  TO  TRENCH  105 

All  goods  are  loaded  and  unloaded  on  what  we 
would  call  a  freight  shed,  flanked  by  railway  tracks. 
The  incoming  bulk  train  stops  on  the  track  outside 
the  shed  and  its  groceries  are  loaded  onto  the  plat- 
form, where  each  kind  of  commodity  has  a  section 
or  Block,  which  is  numbered.  Each  block  holds 
thirty  days'  supply  of  that  particular  commodity  for 
one  Division.  Let  us  say  that  Sugar  Block,  for 
example,  is  Number  Six.  All  trucks  loaded  with 
sugar  therefore  are  stopped  opposite  this  Block. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  platform  are  the  empty 
freight  cars  of  the  Divisional  Park  Train.  Its  sugar 
truck  is  put  alongside  Block  Six.  Thus  only  two 
operations  are  required  to  unload  the  sugar  from 
the  bulk  train  and  get  it  into  the  sugar  truck  of  the 
Divisional  Pack  Train.  The  same  is  followed  with 
all  commodities. 

Perishable  supplies  are  kept  in  the  shed.  Just 
beyond  the  tracks  where  the  Divisional  Train  un- 
loads is  a  huge  open  platform  where  non-perish- 
able goods  like  canned  goods  are  kept.  This  is  un- 
loaded in  bulk  and  piled  up  in  numbered  Blocks. 
The  performance  at  the  shed  is  repeated  here ;  that 
is,  cars  are  matched  to  Blocks.  It  would  be  difficult 
to  find  anywhere  a  system  simpler  than  the  one  I 
have  here  tried  to  explain. 

Each  train  has  a  Loading  Officer,  who  gets  each 
morning  a  long  form  filled  out  with  the  necessary 
articles  to  be  packed.  After  the  train  is  loaded  he 
signs  the  form  which  is  checked  in  turn  by  a  Check- 


io6  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

ing  Officer  and  it  becomes  part  of  the  permanent 
record  of  the  transaction.  At  the  Advanced  Base 
Supply  Depot  each  Division  supplied  gets  a  number. 
If  a  train  steams  out  with  83  on  its  trucks  it  means 
that  this  is  the  number  of  the  Division  whose  food 
it  carries.  When  it  gets  to  the  Regulating  Station 
a  corresponding  group  of  freight  cars  bearing  this 
same  number  are  switched  on  behind  and  the  Divi- 
sional Pack  Train,  now  complete,  goes  up  the  line 
to  Rail  Head. 

With  this  Divisional  Pack  Train  goes  a  series  of 
Waybills.  One  of  these  is  signed  by  the  Rail  Head 
Supply  Officer,  who  sends  it  back  to  the  Advanced 
Base  Supply  Depot  as  a  receipt  for  the  goods.  An- 
other duplicate  is  kept  by  him  for  his  stock  records. 
Still  a  third  remains  behind  at  the  Depot. 

Go  to  a  Regulating  Station — it  may  be  five  or 
thirty  miles  from  the  Advanced  Base  Suppy  Depot 
— ^and  you  will  find  yourself  in  a  maze  of  ceaseless 
traffic.  Day  and  night  scores  of  trains  come  and 
go,  hauled  by  nervous  puffy  engines.  On  the  net- 
work of  tracks — called  the  Triage — everything 
seems  to  be  in  confusion,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
it  is  all  part  of  a  perfectly  attuned  system.  At  every 
Regulating  Station  the  Traffic  Manager  sits  at  his 
desk  with  a  huge  blackboard  before  him,  on  which 
every  incoming  and  outgoing  train  is  marked.  Al- 
though he  may  wear  the  uniform  of  a  captain  or 
major,  it  is  purely  a  temporary  rank.  Before  the 
war  he  was  an  operating  official  on  the  London  and 


FROM  SHIP  TO  TRENCH  107 

Northwestern  or  the  Northeastern  or  some  other 
great  EngHsh  railway.       He  knows  his  job. 

At  these  stations  trains  are  Hterally  regulated. 
Hence  the  title.  Every  Traffic  Manager  in  charge 
keeps  what  he  calls  Plus  and  Minus  Books.  H  an 
extra  sugar  or  tinned  meat  or  gasolene  car  comes 
up  it  is  registered  in  the  Plus  Book.  H  by  any 
chance  a  sectional  Pack  Train  arrives  with  a  car 
short  it  is  recorded  in  the  Minus  Book.  What  is 
more  important  the  gap  in  the  train  is  at  once  filled 
and  without  delay  from  the  extra  loaded  cars  that 
are  kept  on  what  is  known  as  the  Surplus  Track. 

A  complete  set  of  Divisional  Pack  Trains  is 
handled  every  twenty-four  hours.  I  mean  by  this 
that  beginning  at  sunset  each  evening  the  battalions 
of  trains  begin  to  steam  away  from  the  Regulation 
Station  up  to  the  Rail  Head  where  they  are  sched- 
uled to  arrive  at  dawn.  Just  as  soon  as  one  group 
of  these  trains  leaves  the  station  another  install- 
ment of  bulk  and  partly-packed  trains  begins  to 
arrive.    It  is  an  endless  round  of  traffic. 

No  train  returns  from  Rail  Head  empty.  It 
brings  back  clothing,  shoes,  guns,  ammunition  and 
engineering  stores  to  be  salvaged  or  renewed. 

When  you  reach  the  Rail  Head  you  are  in  the 
Zone  of  the  Armies.  You  have  gone  as  far  as  the 
railway  dares  to  go.  Indeed  more  than  one  Divi- 
sional Pack  Train  has  arrived  at  its  destination  to 
be  met  by  an  avalanche  of  shells  and  smashed  to 
bits.     From  this  time  on  you  are  up  against  danger 


io8  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

and  death;  the  whole  system  of  subsistence  is  ex- 
posed to  a  hundred  hazards. 

Yet  despite  every  difficulty  that  besets  the  Lines 
of  Food  Communication  the  accounting  and  super- 
vision go  right  on.  The  Rail  Head  Supply  Officer 
keeps  a  Daily  Stock  Sheet,  upon  which  he  enters 
the  supplies  he  receives  from  the  Divisional  Pack 
Trains,  and  deducts  the  Issues  that  he  makes. 

The  Rail  Head  may  be  the  shattered  railway  sta- 
tion of  a  ruined  French  town  or  an  improvised  open 
air  freight  yard.  The  steel  rail  follows  the  ad- 
vancing armies.'  What  was  the  scene  of  a  bloody 
battle  one  month  may  be  an  important  railway  dis- 
tributing point  the  next. 

At  the  Rail  Head  a  Reserve  is  kept  on  hand  to 
meet  emergencies.  Wherever  you  go  in  the  whole 
scheme  of  British  supply  you  find  the  Reserve, 
which  is  the  bulwark  against  breakdown  in  trans- 
port. This  Rail  Head  Reserve  is  renewed  every 
month  because  some  of  the  goods  is  likely  to  spoil. 
It  is  kept  under  canvas  which  is  heavily  camou- 
flaged. 

The  active  supplies  which  arrive  every  morning 
are  loaded  into  squadrons  of  motor  trucks,  techni- 
cally called  the  Divisional  Supply  Column,  which 
hauls  the  supplies  to  the  Refilling  Point.  Now  you 
encounter  Mechanical  Transport  for  the  first  time 
as  an  active  accessory  of  the  Armies  of  the  field. 
Frequently  it  must  do  all  its  work  at  night  because 


i:' 


t- 


^.    o 
-?    Pi 

■£•      I— ( 


J       < 


9U 
So 


On 
O^ 


w 

< 

m 

w 

O 
J 

o 

H 
O 


FROM  SHIP  TO  TRENCH  109 

it  is  often  the  target  of  the  long-range  German  guns 
and  the  aeroplane. 

The  Refilling  Point  marks  the  last  stage  of  Me- 
chanical Transport.  As  the  danger  becomes  greater 
and  you  get  nearer  to  the  fighting  the  means  of  food 
conveyance  must  adapt  themselves  to  the  perils  of 
the  situation.  The  roads  are  now  so  bad  that  even 
if  there  were  no  shells  flying  about  a  three-ton 
motor  truck  could  never  get  through.  The  army 
prop  becomes  the  horse  and  the  mule.  Henceforth 
and  up  to  the  time  the  food  is  actually  delivered  to 
the  fighting  units,  it  is  conveyed  by  the  Divisional 
Train  which  is  Horse  Transport.  A  Divisional 
Train  consists  of  455  men,  375  animals  and  198 
wagons. 

With  the  Horse  Transport  you  get  the  really 
spectacular  contact  with  the  firing  line.  Day  and 
night  it  is  almost  constantly  under  fire.  A  German 
gunner  would  rather  "pot"  a  food  column  than  a 
trench  because  it  works  a  greater  hardship.  I  have 
seen  the  roads  strewn  with  the  debris  of  wrecked 
Supply  wagons  and  black  with  the  bodies  of  dead 
horses.  More  than  200,000  horses  have  been  killed 
in  France  alone  since  the  war  began.  Most  of 
them  were  in  the  Transport  because  very  little 
cavalry  has  been  employed. 

At  the  unit,  which  is  usually  a  battalion,  the  food 
is  unloaded  from  the  wagons  and  taken  in  charge 
by  the  Battalion  Quartermaster,  who  divides  it  into 
five  lots,  one  for  Headquarters  and  one  for  each 


no  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

of  the  four  companies.  In  the  company  the  Quar- 
termaster Sergeant  puts  it  up  in  sacks  and  gives  it  to 
carrying  parties  who  convey  it  to  the  trenches. 

The  manner  of  cooking  depends  upon  the  stage 
of  fighting.  The  food  is  sometimes  cooked  behind 
the  lines  and  carried  up  at  night  by  hand  in  "dixies" 
or  large  food  containers.  It  may  be  cooked  in  the 
Communication  Trench  or  in  the  Front  Trench 
itself.  The  main  essential  is  that  the  Horse  Trans- 
port delivers  the  supplies  to  the  Battalion  and  the 
unit  must  do  the  rest  as  the  circumstance  of  war 
dictates. 

I  made  a  journey  last  autumn  from  a  Rail  Head 
to  the  trenches.  It  was  in  the  historic  valley  that 
British  valour  has  glorified  into  one  of  the  supreme 
and  spectacular  spots  of  the  war,  where  half  a  dozen 
Gettysburgs  have  been  fought  and  won  since  Haig 
began  his  victorious  onward  sweep.  On  either  side 
flowed  the  rivers  that  will  have  imperishable  names, 
for  the  Ancre  and  the  Somme  are  part  of  the  agony 
and  sacrifice  of  the  great  struggle. 

Six  months  before  I  had  seen  that  same  region 
white  with  snow,  yet  blazing  with  death.  Two 
mighty  armies  were  locked  in  a  terrific  struggle. 
The  hillsides  were  gashed  with  trenches,  the  roads 
blocked  with  ammunition  convoys.  Everything  was 
dedicated  to  destruction. 

When  I  went  back  the  British  advance  had  left 
this  one-time  battle  ground  far  behind.  Where  the 
big  guns  had  roared  was  now  a  Refilling  Point. 


FROM  SHIP  TO  TRENCH  in 

Not  many  miles  to  the  rear  in  the  little  city  that 
vies  with  Ypres  as  the  theatre  of  heroic  endeavour 
a  Rail  Head  had  been  established  in  the  wrecked 
railway  station.  Motor  trucks  were  lined  up  at  the 
platform  for  their  daily  supplies,  mountains  of  for- 
age towered  in  the  public  square  now  a  mass  of 
wreckage ;  in  the  ruins  of  the  houses  where  once  the 
citizens  smoked  and  lived  their  uneventful  lives 
Royal  Engineers  were  rearing  stables  to  protect  the 
supply  of  horses  from  the  rigours  of  the  winter  so 
near  at  hand.  A  Community  of  Supply  had  sud- 
denly sprung  up  amid  a  wanton  waste.  There  was 
still  a  suggestion  of  close  proximity  to  war  in  the 
boom  of  the  far-away  guns  but  that  was  all. 

The  valley  beyond  was  a  flower  garden.  The  fur- 
rowed hillsides  blazed  with  poppies;  the  shell  holes 
were  rippling  pools  of  yellow  mustard  plant.  Nature 
had  "come  back."  Only  the  men  sleeping  in  the 
graves  by  the  roadside  would  never  return. 

To  return  to  practical  details,  the  question  that 
the  average  man  would  ask  at  this  point  is:  How 
does  the  Advanced  Base  Supply  Depot  or  the  Rail 
Head  Supply  Officer  or  the  Refilling  Point  Officer 
know  just  how  much  food  and  fuel  to  carry?  With 
shells  shrieking  all  over  the  place  an  excess  supply 
would  invite  unnecessary  loss.  Again,  no  chances 
can  be  taken  in  underestimating  the  needs  of  the 
men  fighting  for  their  lives. 

You  have  only  to  look  a  little  further  into  the 
supply  system  to  see  how  it  is  done.     Every  one 


112  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

of  the  five  British  armies  in  the  field  has  a  Deputy 
Assistant  Quartermaster  General  and  a  Deputy  Di- 
rector of  Supply  and  Transport.  The  latter  is  the 
link  between  the  Demands  of  the  army  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  Source  of  Supply  on  the  other. 

A  battalion  up  front  makes  its  Demands  for  sup- 
plies on  the  Brigade  Supply  Officer,  who  in  turn 
"Demands,"  as  the  phrase  goes,  on  the  Senior  Sup- 
ply Officer,  w^ho  is  the  Supply  Officer  of  the  Divi- 
sion. He  renders  a  Consolidated  Demand  on  the 
Rail  Head  Supply  Officer.  If  the  Division  is  re- 
cruited to  full  strength  it  means  that  he  wants  daily 
supplies  for  20,000  men  and  5,800  horses. 

The  Rail  Head  Supply  Officer  thereupon  issues 
in  accordance  with  this  request  from  the  stores  he 
receives  each  day  from  the  Divisional  Pack  Train. 
He  sends  a  "Daily  Wire  of  Feeding  Strength  and 
Reserve"  to  the  Deputy  Director  of  Supplies  and 
Transport  with  the  Army,  who  makes  a  formal 
Demand  for  all  the  supplies  needed  on  the  Ad- 
vanced Base  Supply  Depot.  In  other  words,  the 
battalion  in  the  trenches  ultimately  clears  its  needs 
through  the  Headquarters  of  the  army  to  which  it 
is  attached. 

What  happens  when  Divisions  change  ?  Brigades 
are  being  constantly  shifted  from  service  in  the 
trenches  to  Rest  Camps  in  the  rear.  They  usually 
come  down  very  much  depleted  in  ranks  and  do  not 
require  as  much  food  as  the  fresh  brigade  that  has 
just  gone  up  to  relieve  them.    It  is  up  to  the  Senior 


FROM  SHIP  TO  TRENCH  113 

Supply  Officer  to  immediately  acquaint  the  Deputy 
Director  of  Supply  and  Transport  with  the  change 
so  that  it  can  be  noted  in  the  issue  of  supplies. 

Let  us  assume  that  the  Division  has  lost  10,000 
men  and  that  its  Transport  is  all  shot  to  pieces,  hav- 
ing lost  2,800  animals.  This  means  that  it  goes 
back  to  rest  with  10,000  men  and  3,000  animals. 

The  Senior  Supply  Officer  simply  wires :  "X  Divi- 
sion feeding  strength,  men  ten  thousand,  animals 
three  thousand,"  and  the  Advanced  Base  Supply 
Depot  immediately  adjusts  its  Pack  Train  to  meet 
the  change  in  needs. 

A  specific  report  is  made  on  all  supplies  salvaged 
or  captured  from  the  enemy.  If  these  are  fit  for 
consumption  they  are  used  up  at  once  and  the  units 
consuming  them  under-draw  on  their  supplies  from 
the  Base. 

Every  possible  precaution  is  taken  against  food 
disaster.  There  is  always  five  days'  reserve  for 
each  Division  at  Rail  Head  and  a  reserve  at  the 
Horse  Reserve  Park,  where  the  extra  Horse  Trans- 
port is  kept  to  renew  horses.  These  reserves,  to- 
gether with  the  Iron  Rations  of  the  men,  constitutes 
a  sufficient  safeguard  against  a  breakdown  in  train 
service  which,  at  the  worst,  would  not  last  more 
than  three  or  four  days. 

Now  you  can  see  why  Tommy  never  misses  a 
meal. 

For  the  last  I  have  kept  the  chapter  in  the  story 
of   Army    Supply   which   from   the   viewpoint   of 


114  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

American  business  is  more  important  perhaps  than 
any  other.  It  concerns  the  check  on  waste,  which 
extends  well  up  into  the  fighting  area.  Aside  from 
the  fact  that  it  saves  the  British  Government  mil- 
lions of  dollars  every  year  it  points  the  way  to  a 
tremendous  conservation  of  financial  and  material 
resources  in  connection  with  our  own  military  oper- 
ations abroad.  It  has  a  worldwide  significance  be- 
cause it  touches  the  two  universal  institutions — 
human  nature  and  the  pocketbook. 

During  a  great  war  and  while  the  nation  is 
thrilled  and  touched  by  the  news  of  the  front  no 
one  questions  the  cost.  Everybody  has  some  kind 
of  stake  in  the  struggle.  But  when  the  war  is  over 
and  the  fixed  charges  on  glory  in  the  shape  of  taxes 
and  other  demands  must  be  met  with  irritating  and 
costly  regularity,  the  unpatriotic  and  unromantic 
question  arises:  "Where  did  all  that  money  go?" 

Scandal  lifts  its  fearsome  head.  Boards  of  In- 
quiry become  the  habit  and  good  names  are  be- 
smirched. It  is  not  war  that  constitutes  the  grave- 
yard of  reputation,  but  the  investigation  that  comes 
afterward. 

The  British  Army  is  taking  no  chances  on  be- 
coming the  target  for  the  scandal-monger  when 
peace  sheathes  the  sword.  A  remarkable  system 
of  auditing  and  accounting  has  been  in  operation 
from  the  first  day  of  war  that  will  show  the  British 
taxpayer  just  where  every  penny  of  his  money  has 


FROM  SHIP  TO  TRENCH  115 

gance.  As  with  Corporations  the  greatest  of  these 
is  Publicity. 

There  are  two  separate  and  distinct  curbs  on 
army  waste.  One  operates  under  the  supervision 
of  the  Financial  Adviser  of  the  War  Office,  who 
must  render  an  accounting  to  Parliament  for  all 
war  expenditures,  and  who  has  a  complete  work- 
ing organisation  in  the  field  which  deals  entirely 
with  finance.  The  other  is  the  Investigation  De- 
partment under  the  control  of  the  Director  of  Sup- 
ply at  General  Headquarters,  which  follows  up  all 
supplies  and  sees  that  the  issue  of  food  does  not  ex- 
ceed actual  consumption. 

Take  the  Financial  Supervision  first.  In  a  build- 
ing in  a  certain  French  town  not  a  great  distance 
behind  the  lines  is  a  complete  Financial  Bureau  in 
charge  of  a  Brigadier  General,  who  before  the  war 
was  specially  trained  in  the  requirements  of  Treas- 
ury audit  and  who  is  in  the  English  Civil  Service. 
The  record  of  every  dollar  that  the  Army  spends  in 
France  (and  there  is  a  very  large  field  expenditure) 
goes  through  his  office.  The  voucher  for  each  ton 
oi  biscuits  that  lands  in  France  must  pass  his 
scrutiny  and  show  that  the  food  is  either  in  stock  or 
eaten. 

Every  day — as  General  Pershing  has  already 
learned  to  his  cost — some  sort  of  claim  is  made  by 
the  French  for  damages.  If  a  pig  is  nm  over  by 
a  motor  truck  the  peasant  immediately  sends  in  a 
claim   for  a  thousand  francs.    The  usual  French 


ii6  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

claim  of  this  kind  ranges  from  ten  to  twenty  times 
the  real  value  of  the  damaged  goods.  Every  pig 
destroyed,  according  to  the  owner,  could  do  every- 
thing but  talk.  All  these  claims  must  be  investi- 
gated and  paid.  Likewise  the  immense  bills  for  bil- 
leting must  be  audited. 

Everything  is  investigated.  If  an  officer's  car  is 
smashed  up  a  Board  of  Inquiry  sits  on  the  case  to 
find  out  if  the  accident  was  due  to  carelessness  or 
the  natural  hazards  of  congested  road  traffic  in  the 
war  zone.  If  it  is  proved  that  the  accident  was 
due  to  carelessness  the  officer  is  required  to  pay  the 
damages;  if  it  was  unavoidable  it  is  "Written  off" 
and  marked  "To  be  borne  by  the  public,"  which 
means  that  John  Bull  foots  the  bill. 

These  Boards  of  Inquiry,  which  are  composed 
of  officers,  deal  with  an  immense  variety  of  emer- 
gencies. It  may  be  a  leakage  of  gasolene  due  to 
rough  handling  or  defective  packing;  an  unvouch- 
ered  expenditure  by  a  Purchasing  Agent;  the  loss 
of  horse  blankets  in  transit  from  the  Ordnance  Base 
Depot  in  France  to  the  Advanced  Horse  Transport 
Depot,  or  the  destruction  of  Ordnance  stores  due 
to  fire.  Witnesses  are  examined,  a  complete  report 
is  made  in  each  case  and  responsibility  fixed. 

As  soon  as  it  was  evident  that  stationary  or 
trench  warfare  was  likely  to  continue  in  France  for 
a  long  time  it  became  necessary  for  the  British 
Army  to  purchase  as  much  food  and  forage  in 
France  as  possible.    For  one  thing  it  saves  tonnage 


FROM  SHIP  TO  TRENCH  117 

from  England  and  elsewhere.  A  Central  Purchas- 
ing Board  was  established  by  the  Financial  De- 
partment to  deal  with  the  field  buying  which  is  made 
by  officers,  known  as  Requisitioning  Officers,  who 
are  attached  to  each  brigade.  H  these  Officers  were 
permitted  to  buy  indiscriminately  the  competition 
between  them  would  immediately  raise  the  prices 
of  all  commodities.  To  prevent  this  there  is  a  sepa- 
rate Purchasing  Board  with  each  army.  Each  Board 
gets  a  regular  schedule  of  prices  to  be  paid — it  is 
changed  from  time  to  time  to  meet  market  condi- 
tions— and  if  the  French  farmer  or  shopkeeper  does 
not  accept  them  the  goods  is  ordered  from  home. 
This  is  the  guarantee  against  gouging. 

The  whole  operation  of  this  Financial  Depart- 
ment in  the  field  goes  to  show  that  although  Great 
Britain  spends  $35,000,000  a  day  on  the  war  a 
suspicious  item  of  five  dollars  is  rigidly  scrutinised. 
The  Watch  Dog  of  the  British  Treasury  is  always 
on  the  job. 

But  this  censorship  of  expenditure  is  merely  the 
beginning  of  real  supply  auditing  which  constitutes 
the  principal  work  of  the  Investigation  Department. 
Here  you  have  the  branch  of  the  Business  of  War 
which  corresponds  with  the  Accounting  Department 
of  a  business.  Its  headquarters — located  at  a  bus- 
tling French  town  where  an  immense  number  of 
British  supply  trains  are  regulated  every  day — are 
just  like  the  offices  of  a  large  firm  of  expert  ac- 
countants.    The  duties  are  almost  the  same.     The 


ii8  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

only  difference  is  that  the  men  of  the  "I.  D." — as 
the  Investigation  end  is  known — wear  uniforms,  are 
subject  to  miHtary  disciphne  and  deal  with  the  big- 
gest business  in  the  world.  Most  of  these  officers, 
I  might  add,  were  actuaries,  accountants  and  book- 
keepers in  civil  life.  At  their  head  is  a  regular 
officer.  Colonel  C.  M.  Ryan,  a  Deputy  Director  of 
Supplies,  who,  without  the  slightest  previous  busi- 
ness experience,  runs  the  whole  show  just  as  if  he 
had  been  trained  in  trade. 

The  Investigation  Department  was  started  in  De- 
cember, 1 9 14.  Originally  its  operations  were  con- 
fined to  the  Base  and  Advanced  Supply  Depots.  It 
had  and  still  has  a  representative  at  every  Base 
Depot  who  checks  up  the  receipts  and  issues  of  sup- 
plies and  acts  as  Auditing  Officer.  Losses  of  sup- 
plies from  theft,  over-issue  or  on  the  road  have  to 
be  accounted  for.  A  monthly  stock  taking  was  en- 
forced and  every  discrepancy  thoroughly  investi- 
gated. This  strict  supervision  not  only  means  a  large 
financial  saving  but  is  of  distinct  military  value  be- 
cause it  compels  all  the  Depots  to  keep  their  stocks 
ship-shape. 

In  view  of  the  large  number  of  supply  trains  that 
shunt  back  and  forth  every  day  it  is  natural  that 
freight  cars  should  be  lost.  All  these  are  traced 
by  the  Investigating  Department.  During  last  July 
199  loaded  trucks,  lost  in  transit,  were  run  down 
and  their  freight  restored. 

During  the  summer  of  191 5  General  Carter  said 


COL.  C.  M.  RYAN   (LEFT)   AND  THE  AUTHOR 
Colonel   Rvan  is  head  of  the  Investigation   Department  in  the 

Field 


I 


FROM  SHIP  TO  TRENCH  119 

to  himself :  "Why  not  extend  the  operations  of  the 
Investigation  Department  into  the  army  areas?  An 
immense  amount  of  supplies  in  the  field  of  fighting 
is  practically  unaccounted  for.  There  is  not  the 
slightest  reason  why  supervision  should  not  extend 
to  the  field  kitchen." 

Up  to  this  time  the  general  principle  laid  down  by 
the  War  Office  was  that  there  shall  be  no  account- 
ing for  supplies  after  it  left  the  Advanced  Supply 
Depot.  Demands  for  food  were  made  on  scraps 
of  paper  and  the  rudest  sort  of  Indents  while  the 
certificate  of  Issue  and  Receipt  was  often  scribbled 
on  the  back.     Naturally  there  was  great  waste. 

General  Carter's  suggestion  was  adopted  by  the 
Quartermaster  General  to  all  the  Forces  and  an 
Administrative  Control  was  established  which  lit- 
erally represents  the  last  word  in  Supply  Super- 
vision because  it  follows  the  goods  up  to  the  point 
of  consumption. 

Forms  were  standardised  and  the  whole  system 
of  "Demanding"  by  troops  at  the  front  which  I 
have  described  earlier  in  this  chapter  was  put  into 
effect.  The  haphazard  methods  disappeared  and  the 
whole  process  put  on  a  definite  business  basis. 

Over  all  this  unending  procession  of  Supply  the 
Investigation  Department  keeps  vigilant  watch.  It 
gets  a  duplicate  of  every  Indent  for  Rations — 55,000 
of  these  come  in  each  week  alone — a  copy  of  every 
receipt  for  supplies  delivered  and  a  carbon  of  each 
Waybill  used  throughout  the  traffic  system.    Into 


I20  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

its  office  pours  a  flood  of  documents  that  record 
every  transaction  that  relates  to  the  issue  of  food 
to  the  British  Armies  in  France. 

The  main  job,  therefore,  of  the  Investigation  De- 
partment is  to  reconcile  Issue  with  Receipt.  Each 
commodity  issued  must  register  one  hundred  per 
cent,  which  means  that  every  pound  of  it  must  be 
consumed  or  be  in  a  Reserve.  If  there  is  a  serious 
discrepancy  the  officers  responsible  are  likely  to  be 
severely  disciplined. 

So  automatic  has  become  the  working  of  demand 
and  supply  that  during  the  month  that  I  spent  with 
the  British  Armies  the  Reconciliation  Percentage 
of  twenty-three  leading  commodities  did  not  vary 
more  than  one  per  cent  in  surplus  or  in  shortage. 
In  practically  every  case  it  was  considerably  less 
than  one  per  cent.  Over-issue,  which  always  meanj 
waste,  is  eliminated. 

Thus  the  Business  of  War  is  more  than  a  phrase. 
It  is  as  efficient  as  it  is  destructive. 


V — The  Miracle  of  Transport 

WHEN  the  real  story  of  the  Great  War  is 
written  the  technical  experts  will  prob- 
ably call  it  a  War  of  Artillery,  but 
the  men  who  have  had  to  battle  with  the  busi- 
ness of  it  will  always  know  it  as  the  War 
of  Mechanical  Transport.  The  whole  marvellous 
Empire  of  the  Motor  has  produced  no  great- 
er miracle  than  the  achievement  of  the  gasolene- 
propelled  vehicle  which  has  made  possible  the  feed- 
ing and  purveying  of  the  enormous  fighting  hosts. 
Indeed,  Supply  and  Transport  are  so  closely  re- 
lated that  one  cannot  exist  without  the  other.  They 
are  the  real  affinities  of  the  service. 

Since  an  historic  evening  early  in  September, 
1914,  when  General  Gallieni's  reserve  army  swept 
out  of  Paris  in  taxicabs,  joined  Joffre's  forces, 
helped  to  deliver  the  crucial  blow  that  blocked  the 
Germans  at  the  Marne  and  saved  the  capital,  the 
automobile  has  been  a  constantly  increasing  factor 
in  the  waging  of  the  war.  In  this  particular  case 
it  provided  the  pivot  on  which  the  whole  Allied 
Cause  turned.  If  Paris  had  fallen  then  before  Von 
Kluck's  drive  no  man  knows  what  might  have  hap- 
pened. The  abused  taxi  earned  its  crown  of  glory 
that  night. 

No  phase  of  the  British  army  organisation  in  the 
121 


122  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

field  is  of  such  vital  significance  to  the  United 
States  as  Mechanical  Transport.  Here  you  get  the 
direct  link  with  America  because  thousands  of  our 
cars  of  all  kinds  are  in  constant  use  in  the  War 
Zone.  But  more  important  than  this  is  the  tre- 
mendous lesson  in  standardisation  both  as  to  vehi- 
cles and  their  parts,  that  has  been  learned  by  the 
British  after  three  years  of  costly  and  drastic  ex- 
perience. By  heeding  this  lesson  we  can  save  mil- 
lions of  dollars  to  say  nothing  of  infinite  trouble. 
Simple  and  standardised  Mechanical  Transport  is 
half  the  battle  because  it  not  only  means  adequate 
food  supply  but  also  guns,  ammunition,  aeroplanes 
and  engineers'  stores. 

Under  the  terrific  pressure  of  army  needs  the 
utilitarian  side  of  the  motor,  from  cycle  to  five-ton 
truck,  has  been  reorganised  and  given  a  rebirth  of 
efficiency.  Three  years  of  war  have  advanced  the 
industry  more  than  ten  years  of  peaceful  investiga- 
tion. The  results  are  of  almost  incalculable  bene- 
fit to  the  entire  business.  They  furnish  one  of  the 
many  stimulating  examples  of  regeneration  wrought 
out  of  monster  destruction. 

Like  the  army  it  serves,  British  Mechanical 
Transport  has  developed  from  almost  nothing  into 
a  mighty  machine.  Prior  to  this  war  the  motor 
truck,  as  a  practical  aid  to  operations  in  the  field, 
did  not  loom  very  large  in  the  mobilisation  plans. 
In  the  Boer  War  all  the  transport  was  drawn  by 
horses,  mules  or  oxen.     In  1910  a  few  steam-pro- 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  TRANSPORT     123 

pelled  trucks  were  introduced  as  experiments,  but 
they  were  rather  impracticable  on  account  of  their 
weight,  slow  speed  and  the  inevitable  difficulty  of 
fuel  supply  in  actual  war.  The  Mechanical  Trans- 
port was  controlled  by  the  Transport  Branch  of  the 
War  Office  and  consisted  of  a  very  small  personnel 
and  an  equally  limited  number  of  vehicles.  The 
War  Office  relied  for  the  provision  of  motor  trans- 
port in  the  event  of  the  mobilisation  of  an  Expedi- 
tionary Force  on  trucks  already  in  use  in  civil  work 
whose  owners  had  been  subsidised  and  who  were, 
therefore,  bound  to  turn  over  their  equipment  at 
the  outbreak  of  war.  For  the  expansion  of  the  per- 
sonnel this  plan  depended  upon  the  direct  commis- 
sioning of  experienced  civilians  for  officers  and  the 
immediate  enlistment  of  civilian  drivers.  No  pro- 
vision was  made  for  training  men  in  discipline  or 
military  routine.  Such  was  practically  the  main 
Mechanical  Transport  resource  of  the  British  Army 
before  the  war  began. 

Under  this  scheme  the  mobilisation  of  motor 
units  was  entrusted  to  the  Commanding  Officers  of 
the  various  ports  of  embarkation.  These  officers 
were  provided  with  lists  of  the  vehicles  which  were 
to  mobilise  at  their  depots.  The  owners  of  these 
vehicles  were  instructed  by  telegraph  just  where 
their  trucks  and  cars  would  be  required.  For  the 
provision  of  spare  parts  a  system  of  subsidy,  sim- 
ilar to  that  in  vogue  for  the  supply  of  complete 
vehicles,  existed.     Efforts  were  made  to  encourage 


124  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

manufacturers  to  standardise  parts  and  fittings  to 
as  great  an  extent  as  possible. 

When  the  war  crashed  into  civilisation  this  ar- 
rangement was  not  found  entirely  wanting.  The 
trucks  that  first  supplied  Lord  French's  army  were 
taken  from  trade.  They  went  from  shop,  ware- 
house and  factory  to  flat  cars,  were  hauled  to  the 
southern  ports  and  rushed  to  France.  These  scat- 
tered and  impressed  vehicles  formed  the  nucleus 
of  the  immense  fleet  of  transport  comprising  thou- 
sands of  trucks,  cars  and  motorcycles — 50,000,000 
pounds  of  equipment  on  rubber  tires — that  to-day 
makes  up  the  Mechanical  Transport  of  the  British 
Armies  in  France  alone.  The  transport  in  the 
other  theatres  of  war  augments  this  list  consid- 
erably. 

As  a  matter  of  picturesque  fact,  however,  the 
British  Mechanical  Transport  in  France  on  any  kind 
of  scale  really  began  with  that  lumbering  engine  of 
peace,  the  London  omnibus.  At  the  outbreak  of 
hostilities  thousands  of  them  were  literally  taken 
from  the  Strand,  Piccadilly  and  other  streets  of  the 
metropolis  and  shunted  into  the  war  area.  They 
were  used  to  convey  the  "Old  Contemptibles,"  as 
the  first  immortal  army  that  dashed  to  the  relief 
of  Belgium,  was  called. 

In  connection  with  their  advent  in  France  oc- 
curred one  of  the  most  amusing  incidents  of  the 
war.  Since  these  'buses  were  rushed  from  the  high- 
ways of  peace  into  the  Zone  of  War  they  appeared 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  TRANSPORT     125 


on  the  French  roads  carrying  all  the  advertising 
that  had  become  familiar  to  the  London  population. 
The  virtues  of  soaps,  matches  and  safety  razors 
were  still  extolled  on  their  sides.  At  that  time 
"Pota^  and  Perlmutter,"  rendered  into  a  play,  was 
having  its  first  big  run  at  a  well  known  London 
theatre.  Nearly  every  London  'bus  carried  a  huge 
sign  which  read:  "See  'Potash  and  Perlmutter'  at 
the  Queen's  Theatre." 

This  injunction  in  huge  letters  burst  upon  the  un- 
suspecting people  of  France.  When  the  first  line 
of  'buses  filled  with  British  Tommies  swept  up  the 
road  to  Mons  the  French  soldiers  and  civilians  stood 
at  attention  on  the  roadside  and  yelled : 

"Vivent  les  Generales  Potash  et  Perlmutter!" 

They  thought  that  the  names  of  the  famous  Jew- 
ish merchants  were  those  of  the  British  Generals 
in  command  of  the  Expeditionary  Force. 

Soon  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war  Mechanical 
Transport,  or  "M.  T.,"  as  it  is  known  in  the  ser- 
vice, was  detached  from  the  Transport  Branch  of 
the  War  Office,  entrusted  to  a  separate  branch  of 
the  Quartermaster  General's  staff  and  mated  to  the 
Department  of  Supply.  This  is  why  Major  General 
A.  R,  Crofton  Atkins  is  Director  of  Supply  and 
Transport  in  the  War  Office  organisation  that  feeds 
and  provides  the  British  Armies  everywhere. 

With  Mechanical  Transport  as  with  Supply,  you 
find  a  closeknit  system  that  is  full  brother  to  the 
whole  process  of  provision  that  I  have  already  ex- 


126  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

plained.  It  is  just  one  more  Branch  of  the  stupend- 
ous Business  of  War,  organised,  sustained  and 
operated  on  lines  that  would  do  credit  to  the  most 
scientific  of  industrial  institutions. 

Your  knowledge  of  the  institution  of  Supply  now 
enables  you  to  grasp  at  once  the  scope  of  the  com- 
plete Mechanical  Transport  service.  In  England 
you  find  a  perfect  system  of  provision  based  on 
actual  needs  expressed  in  Deman,ds  sent  in  from 
France  and  the  other  war  areas.  In  the  field  you 
encounter  an  interlocking  chain  of  Base  and  Ad- 
vanced Depots;  you  see  an  unfailing  process  of 
Supply ;  you  behold  a  field  Repair  Service  that  car- 
ries the  work  of  maintenance  and  reconstruction 
almost  up  to  the  firing  line;  you  marvel  at  the 
ceaseless  flow  of  gasolene  and  you  realise  that  the 
whole  world  of  rubber  has  been  drained  for  the 
millions  of  tires  required. 

Again  you  have  the  parallel  with  trade,  because 
this  whole  gasolene  driven  enterprise  is  operated 
just  as  if  it  were  the  annex  of  a  private  business 
that  must  be  conducted  at  maximum  productivity 
and  with  the  minimum  overhead  cost. 

At  the  head  of  this  business  is  Major  General 
W.  G.  B.  Boyce,  Director  of  Transport  of  the  Brit- 
ish Armies  in  France,  who  sits  at  his  desk  at  Gen- 
eral Headquarters  with  his  hand  at  the  wheel  of 
all  Mechanical  Transport  in  that  field.  Every  day 
he  knows  just  the  number  of  trucks  and  cars  that 
are  in  active  service  and  their  exact  condition ;  how 


Copyright   by   J.    Russell   &   Sons,    London. 


MAJOR  GENERAL  W.  G.  B.  BOYCE 
Director  of  Transport  of  the  British  Armies  in  France 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  TRANSPORT     127 

many  have  been  destroyed  by  enemy  fire  or  acci- 
dent the  day  before;  the  exact  state  of  all  motor 
supply  at  all  Depots,  and  what  new  vehicles  are  on 
their  way  to  replenish  the  lost  or  damaged.  In 
brief,  the  whole  Mechanical  Transport  situation, 
through  the  agency  of  an  almost  infallible  chain 
of  intelligence  is  at  his  finger's  end.  In  war  knowl- 
edge is  always  power. 

General  Boyce  is  a  fine  type  of  the  clear-cut 
efficiency  that  you  invariably  discover  in  the  high 
executive  British  Army  places.  Without  technical 
knowledge  of  motors — I  doubt  if  he  knows  how 
to  run  a  car — he  can  detect  the  slightest  deviation 
in  the  structure  of  the  very  technical  organisation 
that  he  controls.  It  is  instinct.  One  of  his  col- 
leagues said :  "Boyce  can  smell  out  mistakes."  I 
am  quite  sure  that  he  could  take  charge  of  any  huge 
motor  plant  in  the  United  States  and  operate  it 
successfully.  Like  his  stalwart  colleague,  General 
E.  E.  Carter,  who  rules  the  Domain  of  Supply,  he 
is  a  graduate  and  member  in  good  standing  of  the 
Army  Service  Corps — a  conspicuous  figure  in  the 
Army  Behind  the  Army. 

At  the  outset  it  might  be  well  to  impress  the  fact 
that  Mechanical  Transport  in  a  great  army  to-day 
is  much  more  than  motor  trucks  and  automobiles. 
It  includes  all  ambulances  not  hauled  by  horses, 
motorcycles,  the  equipment  of  the  tanks  and  the 
huge  so-called  Four  Wheel  Drives,  which  pull  the 
big  guns.     These  Drives  are  the  monster  limbers 


128  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

or  tractors  with  caterpillar  wheels.  In  the  case  of 
9.2  howitzers,  12-inch  guns  and  larger  calibres  they 
are  like  travelling  machine  shops.  All  cannon  from 
6-inch  howitzers  up  come  under  the  head  of  siege 
artillery  and  must  be  hauled  by  mechanical  trans- 
port. Without  motors  they  could  not  be  used  in 
the  field.  Now  you  can  see  why  the  gasolene  engine 
has  made  the  War  of  Artillery  possible. 

Mechanical  Transport  also  includes  all  the  water 
wagons,  which  are  as  important  to  the  sustenance 
as  the  food  columns.  Then,  too,  there  is  the  tre- 
mendous task  of  providing  spare  parts,  accessories 
and  tires  for  all  the  different  kinds  of  vehicles. 
Last,  but  not  least,  of  Mechanical  Transport  re- 
sponsibilities is  the  maintenance  of  a  continuous 
supply  of  the  very  life  blood  of  all  motor  transport, 
which  is  gasolene,  or  petrol,  as  the  British  call  it. 
The  only  section  of  gasolene  transport  not  under 
General  Boyce  is  the  equipment  of  the  Royal  Flying 
Corps.  This  is  because  the  aviation  lorries,  which 
is  the  English  synonym  for  trucks,  must  be  of  spe- 
cial construction  in  order  to  carry  complete  aero- 
planes. 

All  vehicles,  their  parts  and  accessories,  must  be 
provided  from  hundreds  of  factories  in  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States,  mobilised  and 
manned  in  England,  conveyed  to  France  and  other 
areas  of  war  and  kept  going  day  and  night  behind 
the  lines  and  under  fire.  Like  the  organisation  of 
the  Army  Food  Supply,  it  seems  like  an  almost  im- 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  TRANSPORT     129 

possible  proposition,  but  it  is  all  reduced  to  charts 
and  diagrams,  vitalised  by  an  amazing  administra- 
tive genius  and  made  into  an  agency  whose  opera- 
tion is  as  simple  as  it  is  efficient. 

On  a  chart  about  three  feet  square,  which  hangs 
on  the  wall  in  General  Boyce's  Office  at  General 
Headquarters  is  a  layout  of  the  whole  system  from 
factory  to  field.  At  the  bottom  is  Production, 
which  may  be  factories  in  the  United  States  or  Eng- 
land. Next  in  succession  come  the  Home  Depots 
in  England,  where  the  mobilisation  of  transport, 
drivers  and  mechanics  is  effected.  Beyond  this 
lies  France,  where  you  go  from  the  Base  Mechan- 
ical Transport  Depots  to  the  Advanced  Mechanical 
Transport  Depots,  past  the  Heavy  Repair  Shops 
and  Tire  Presses,  up  to  the  Mobile  Work  Shops 
in  the  field  where  the  cars  damaged  by  shell  fire 
or  wrecked  on  the  roads  in  the  zone  of  the  armies 
come  for  repair. 

Everything  on  this  chart  is  so  comprehensive  that 
it  is  like  a  tale  told  in  words  of  one  syllable.  The 
English  Depots  are  all  in  yellow,  the  Depots  and 
shops  on  the  Lines  of  Communication  are  blue, 
while  the  stations  in  the  field  are  pink.  On  one 
side  is  a  succession  of  compact  texts  which  ex- 
plains the  functions  of  every  stage  in  the  system. 
You  can  look  at  this  chart  and  see  at  a  glance  just 
how  the  whole  organisation  of  Mechanical  Trans- 
port lives  and  has  its  being.     With  this  bird's-eye 


I30  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

view  of  operation  in  your  mind  you  can  now  go 
into  specific  details. 

Let  us  first  examine  the  Production  End  as  it 
affects  men  and  motors.  The  rank  and  file  of  Me- 
chanical Transport  must,  of  necessity,  be  more 
skilled  than  any  other  branch  of  the  Army  Ser- 
vice Corps,  from  which  its  entire  personnel  is 
drawn.  All  men  who  enter  the  army  and  who 
have  had  previous  experience  as  chauffeurs  are 
mobilised  at  once  as  drivers.  But  the  number  of 
trained  volunteers  and  conscripts  is  unequal  to  the 
enormous  demands  of  the  Army  Transport  Service. 

Two  huge  Mechanical  Transport  Depots  had  to 
be  established  in  England.  At  one  of  them  the 
men  are  examined  as  to  their  qualifications.  If 
a  man  says  that  he  knows  bow  to  drive  a  truck 
he  is  immediately  put  on  the  seat  of  a  five  ton  lorry 
and  made  to  prove  that  he  can  deliver  the  goods. 
At  the  first  of  these  depots  the  men  are  cross- 
examined,  weeded  out  and  equipped.  They  then 
proceed  to  the  Training  Depot,  where  the  experi- 
enced chauffur  is  put  through  the  paces  with  every 
form  of  army  vehicle  from  truck  to  Four  Wheel 
Drive.  The  green  driver  gets  a  complete  course 
of  technical  instruction.  No  one  is  permitted  to 
leave  the  Depot  to  serve  as  driver  in  the  field  until 
he  can  manage  the  biggest  truck  on  a  crowded  road 
in  the  darkest  night  and  can  repair  his  engine  un- 
der all  sorts  of  disquieting  conditions. 

The  faculty  in  this  Automobile  College  is  com- 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  TRANSPORT     131 

posed  of  temporary  officers  who  have  been  em- 
ployed in  the  great  automobile  factories  of  Eng- 
land and  also  hundreds  of  men  from  the  technical 
staff  of  the  London  General  Omnibus  Company. 
Recruits  who  are  unsuitable  as  motor  drivers  be- 
come loaders  and  packers  and  remain  in  the  Army 
Service  Corps.  This  Automobile  School  becomes 
the  source  of  man  power  for  the  Mechanical  Trans- 
port. The  drain  on  this  man  power  is  very  great 
because  of  the  constant  stream  of  new  vehicles  that 
pours  from  England  into  France  and  the  steady 
losses  in  the  field. 

Now  we  can  turn  to  the  vehicle  end.  Every  week 
scores  of  trucks  and  cars  arrive  in  England  from 
America.  Some  of  the  equipment  from  the  United 
States  comes  in  the  form  of  a  chassis  upon  which 
a  British  body  is  erected.  At  the  same  time  every 
automobile  factory  in  the  United  Kingdom  is  work- 
ing day  and  night  on  army  motor  output.  All 
these  vehicles  and  cars  are  assembled  in  what  is 
called  a  Vehicle  Pool.  Just  as  soon  as  Demands  for 
trucks  come  by  wire  from  France  each  vehicle  is 
manned  with  a  driver  and  an  extra  man  from  the 
Training  Depot  and  sent  on  its  way. 

These  two  men  remain  with  their  truck  until 
they,  or  the  truck,  are  destroyed.  Each  driver  is 
required  to  keep  a  Log  of  his  car.  Into  it  he  must 
record  the  amount  of  fuel  he  uses,  the  number 
of  tires  and  spare  parts  he  requisitions — in  short, 
the  whole  story  of  what  his  vehicle  does. 


132  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

Every  truck  gets  what  is  called  a  War  Depart- 
ment number.  The  chassis  also  gets  a  number.. 
These  two  numbers  are  permanently  attached  tO' 
the  car  and  provide  the  means  of  identifying  it 
throughout  the  army  records.  The  truck  or  car 
and  its  numbers  become  part  of  an  endless  system 
Gi  observation  and  accounting  which  continues  un- 
til the  vehicle  goes  into  the  scrap  heap  and  is  writ- 
ten off  the  books.  Some  of  the  lorries  used  by  the 
First  Expeditionary  Force  are  still  in  service  and 
it  is  interesting  to  add  that  they  include  some  well 
known  American  makes. 

The  vehicle  is  only  one  phase  of  the  Production 
End  in  England.  Near  London  is  an  immense 
spare  part  and  tire  Depot — the  largest  in  the  world. 
Within  its  walls  seven  million  parts  are  "turned 
over"  every  year,  yet  there  is  a  record  of  each  one. 

How  does  the  Production  End  know  just  what 
equipment  to  provide.    I  will  now  explain. 

Despite  the  immense  scope  and  variety  of  the 
Mechanical  Transport  there  is  a  definite  allotment 
for  every  Branch  of  the  Service.  A  Battery  of 
six-inch  howitzers,  for  example,  is  entitled  to  four 
Four  Wheel  Drives  and  fifteen  trucks.  It  can  have 
no  more — no  less.  Eight  of  these  trucks  are  used 
for  ammunition,  three  for  baggage,  two  for  gun 
platforms,  one  for  supplies  and  one  for  spare  parts. 
Every  one  of  these  batteries  is  charged  up  with 
this  mechanical  equipment  and  must  render  an  ac- 
counting. 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  TRANSPORT     133 

The  same  is  true  of  the  trucks  of  a  Divisional 
Supply  Column,  which  hauls  the  food  from  Rail 
Head  to  Refilling  Point  in  the  field,  and  the  Am- 
munition Park  which  carries  shells.  Likewise  every 
Base  and  Advanced  Supply  Depot  has  its  quota 
of  trucks  and  must  maintain  it.  li  this  number 
falls  below  standard  it  must  be  renewed  at  once. 

Hence  it  is  important  for  the  Director  of  Trans- 
port to  know  what  is  technically  called  the  Supply 
Situation  every  day.  From  every  unit  that  uses 
motors  of  any  kind  he  gets  a  report  at  "G.  H.  Q." 
He,  therefore,  knows  precisely  what  he  has  on 
hand ;  what  destruction  has  been  wrought  and  what 
Demands  must  be  made  upon  reserves  in  France 
and  upon  the  Vehicle  Pools  in  England. 

Take  the  case  of  a  Big  Push,  which  usually 
plays  havoc  with  Mechanical  Transport.  A  heavy 
bombardment  may  destroy  fifty  trucks  and  forty 
Four  Wheel  Drives  in  a  single  day.  A  report  of 
this  loss  is  wired  to  the  Director  of  Transport, 
who  replaces  the  lost  vehicles  from  the  Reserve 
Park  in  the  Field.  He  immediately  makes  a  De- 
mand on  England  for  enough  Transport  to  fill 
up  the  gap  in  the  Park.  The  Reserve  Vehicle 
Park  bears  the  same  relation  to  Mechanical  Trans- 
port that  the  Authorised  Reserve  bears  to  Food 
Provision.  It  is  the  bulwark  against  disaster,  an 
automatic  insurance  against  delays  and  break- 
downs. Throughout  the  whole  organisation  of 
Mechanical  Transport  you  find  that   Supply  and 


134  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

Ordnance  Stores  history  repeats  itself.  Nothing 
is  permitted  to  remain  a  loss.  Swift  renewal  is  the 
watchword  up  and  down  the  line. 

We  can  now  cross  to  France  and  see  how  the 
whole  Mechanical  Transport  Machine  works.  At 
once  you  find  it  linked  up  with  the  Supply  and 
Ordnance  organisation,  for  which  it  fetches  and 
carries.  In  other  words,  it  is  part  and  parcel  of 
the  general  provision  geography  of  the  whole  war 
area.  This  means  that  the  Base  Mechanical  Trans- 
port Depot  on  the  Northern  Line  of  Communica- 
tion is  located  in  the  chief  Supply  port  of  that  Line 
and  serves  the  armies  in  the  area,  while  the  South- 
ern Base  Mechanical  Transport  Depot  adjoins  the 
Base  Supply  Depot  of  the  Southern  Line  and 
serves  the  British  Armies  located  in  its  zone.  The 
organisation  of  both  Base  Mechanical  Depots  is 
practically  the  same,  but  each  has  its  distinctive  ele- 
ments of  interest.     Therefore,  we  will  visit  both. 

The  Base  Mechanical  Transport  Depot  for  the 
Northern  Line  is  of  particular  concern  to  the  United 
States  because  it  supplies  all  the  American  cars 
used  by  the  British  armies.  Go  into  its  huge 
counting  room — it  looks  precisely  like  the  office  of 
a  great  factory  with  its  clicking  typewriters,  card 
indexes,  ledger  accounts,  adding  machines  and  other 
aids  to  business — and  you  will  see  on  the  dia- 
grams that  hang  on  the  wall  the  familiar  names 
that  have  made  American  motor  history  and  which 
are  now  geared  up  to  the  world  automobile  ma- 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  TRANSPORT     135 

chine.  It  makes  the  Yankee  visitor  feel  that  he  is 
back  home. 

Typical  of  the  completeness  of  this  Transport 
organisation  is  a  large  Blueprint  which  outlines  the 
duties  of  every  one  of  the  many  sections.  If  a 
supply  clerk  is  required  to  make  out  triplicates  of 
every  Demand  for  a  spare  part  that  comes  in  it 
is  indicated  here.  Everybody  knows  what  is  ex- 
pected of  him. 

At  one  of  these  Bases  you  get  a  touch  of  the 
real  human  interest  of  the  war.  You  see  a  crack 
motor  designer  who  earns  $i5,cmx)  in  England 
making  blueprints  for  a  subaltern's  pay.  You  find 
an  automobile  production  engineer  who  set  his  own 
fees  in  peace  times  speeding  up  the  supply  output, 
content  with  the  wage  of  a  captain.  Here,  as  else- 
where in  the  Army  Service  Corps,  expert  brain 
as  well  as  brawn,  is  enlisted  on  the  Army  job. 

A  Base  Mechanical  Supply  Depot  in  its  work  plays 
many  parts.  It  receives  all  the  reinforcements — 
drivers  and  mechanics — for  the  field;  it  checks  all 
the  new  vehicles  that  arrive  from  England;  it  has 
a  school  of  instruction  which  gives  the  final  inten- 
sive training  to  slightly  deficient  chauffeurs  and  it  is 
the  clearing  house  for  all  obsolete  or  wrecked-be- 
yond-repair  vehicles. 

But  the  greatest  of  its  functions  is  the  issuance 
of  all  spare  parts  and  tires.  Now  we  come  to  the 
really  difficult  and  complicated  problem  of  all  Me- 
chanical  Transport — the   one   that   is   at   once   its 


136  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

bane  and  its  salvation  and  the  one,  I  might  add, 
which  points  the  greatest  of  all  constructive  morals 
for  the  Transport  organisation  of  the  Ameri- 
can Army  now  in  the  making. 

If  you  know  anything  about  automobiles  you 
know  that  any  motor  vehicle,  whether  it  is  limou- 
sine, touring  car  or  truck  is  the  sum  of  a  great 
many  so-called  parts.  In  the  case  of  one  of  the 
best  known  American  motor  trucks  used  in  France 
there  are  exactly  1,140  parts.  These  parts  may 
be  as  small  as  a  nut  or  as  large  as  an  axle.  Nearly 
every  model  of  car  or  truck  has  its  own  particular 
set  of  parts  or  "spares"  as  they  are  known.  It 
follows,  therefore,  that  very  few  of  these  parts  are 
interchangeable.  You  cannot  renew  X  car  with 
the  spares  of  Y  car.  If  you  are  dealing  with  the 
renewal  and  up-keep  of  a  great  many  different 
makes  you  must  provide  a  separate  supply  of  spares 
for  each  make  of  car  and  also  for  every  type  of 
that  make. 

Now  if  the  British  Army  only  used  a  few  makes 
of  cars  and  a  few  different  types  of  these  makes 
the  renewal  of  spares  would  be  a  very  simple  busi- 
ness. But  this,  unfortunately,  is  not  the  case.  Eng- 
land went  to  war  almost  overnight.  As  you  already 
know,  she  had  paid  very  little  attention  to  the  or- 
ganisation of  her  Mechanical  Transport.  There 
was  no  standardisation;  in  fact,  no  vehicles  to 
standardise.  The  comparatively  small  group  of 
cars  commandeered   for  the   First   Expeditionary 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  TRANSPORT     137 

Force  represented  nearly  a  dozen  different  manu- 
facturers, each  one  with  his  own  particular  set 
of  spare  parts. 

War  does  not  wait.  The  Army  had  to  have 
hundreds  of  trucks  at  once.  They  were  gathered 
in  from  every  possible  source.  America  was 
scoured  for  them  with  the  result  that  before  six 
months  had  passed  there  were  more  than  fifty  dif- 
ferent makes  of  car  trucks  and  cars  in  France  and 
in  many  instances  half  a  dozen  or  more  types  of 
each  make.  In  the  case  of  one  British  truck  ex- 
tensively used  in  the  army  there  are  exactly  sixty- 
seven  types,  which  call  for  more  than  four  thou- 
sand different  parts. 

Since  the  organisation  of  one  Base  Mechanical 
Transport  Depot  and  up  to  the  end  of  July,  19 17, 
210,000  items  have  been  Demanded  by  units  in  the 
field  alone.  This  does  not  mean  the  quantity  of 
parts,  but  the  number  of  items.  If  a  unit  Demands 
six  pistons  for  a  lorry  and  four  connecting  rods 
for  a  touring  car  the  number  of  items  recorded 
is  not  ten,  but  two.  The  number  of  articles  in- 
volved therefore  runs  into  the  millions. 

The  colossal  task  of  transport  renewal  is  now 
apparent.  I  could  give  you  no  better  idea  of  the 
immense  scope  of  this  work  than  to  say  that  at 
the  Base  Mechanical  Transport  Supply  Depot  of 
the  Northern  Line  the  number  of  different  non- 
interchangeable  parts  that  must  be  carried  in  stock 
is  exactly  32,000,  and  that  the  total  stock  compris- 


138  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

ing  these  parts  includes  1,700,000  articles.  In  one 
year  this  Depot  supplied  2,500,000  spares,  and 
this  merely  represents  the  spare  demands  of  one 
Depot.  Altogether  the  Supply  Depots  in  France 
are  required  to  keep  on  hand  during  the  course  of 
a  year  not  less  than  70,000  different  non-inter- 
changeable spares  and  in  some  cases  a  great  num- 
ber of  each  item. 

When  you  consider  that  there  must  be  a  sepa- 
rate bin  for  each  kind  of  "spare"  and  a  complete 
record  for  each  part  issued,  that  in  a  single  day  de- 
mands often  come  in  from  the  Field  for  two  or 
three  hundred  items,  that  every  one  of  these  me- 
chanical fixtures  must  be  kept  constantly  renewed, 
you  get  some  conception  of  the  intricacies  and  the 
hardships  that  attend  adequate  and  continuous  sup- 
ply. Yet  in  the  face  of  all  these  handicaps  no 
truck  or  car  has  ever  been  required  to  wait  more 
than  twenty-four  hours  for  its  spares.  It  is  a  tre- 
mendous tribute  to  the  efficiency  of  the  whole  Sup- 
ply organisation. 

Right  here  you  get  the  significance  of  the  lesson 
for  America.  By  adopting  a  few  standard  trucks 
or  cars  with  interchangeable  parts  at  the  very  out- 
set of  its  war  operations  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment can  save  itself  infinite  time,  trouble  and  ex- 
pense in  its  Mechanical  Transport.  The  same  thing 
is  true  of  aeroplane  engines.  Standardisation — 
ancient  middle  name  of  American  business — would 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  TRANSPORT     139 

work  wonders  in  every  branch  of  the  Army  that 
has  to  deal  with  a  gasolene  engine. 

The  procedure  of  motor  part  renewal  is  very 
simple.  The  units  in  the  field  make  their  Demands 
through  the  Advanced  Mechanical  Transport  Depot. 
If  the  part  is  not  available  from  stock  there  it  is 
secured  from  the  Base.  The  Advanced  Depot,  how- 
ever, only  renews  the  cars  in  the  actual  zones  of  the 
armies.  The  damaged  cars  that  come  to  the  so- 
called  Heavy  Repair  Shops  and  the  cars  used  in  all 
the  Base  and  Advanced  Supply  Depots  are  supplied 
from  the  Base  Mechanical  Transport  Depots. 

In  view  of  the  immense  number  and  variety  of 
parts  every  precaution  is  taken  to  insure  accuracy 
in  the  original  Demand.  Every  Mechanical  Trans- 
port Supply  Officer  in  the  field  is  required  to  pass 
an  examination  in  a  book  called  "The  Demand  for 
Spare  Parts."  This  is  the  Bible  of  "M.  T."  re- 
newal. It  contains  a  simple  description  of  every  part 
used,  its  purpose  and  how  it  is  ordered.  Specimen 
Demand  Sheets  are  printed.  It  is  as  near  fool  and 
mistake-proof  as  possible.  If  the  officer  is  order- 
ing a  rear  axle  he  is  required  to  give  the  War  De- 
partment number  of  the  car  and  also  the  chassis 
number.  These  numbers  are  a  part  of  the  Me- 
chanical Transport  Census,  which  is  in  the  library 
of  every  Base  and  Advanced  Mechanical  Trans- 
port Depot.  If  the  Demand  is  in  any  way  obscure 
the  Census  is  consulted,  the  exact  car  is  located  and 
the  proper  axle  furnished.     In  this  illustration  I 


I40  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

have  used  a  very  large  part,  but  the  same  process 
would  apply  to  the  smallest  item.  Every  spare  and 
accessory  has  a  number  and  it  is  ordered  by  that 
number. 

In  order  to  reduce  the  possibility  of  error  in  spare 
supply  to  a  minimum  and  to  enable  the  Demands 
for  parts  from  the  units  in  the  field  to  be  dealt 
with  promptly  by  non-technical  and  perhaps  event- 
ually by  female  labour  (women  are  succeeding 
soldiers  wherever  possible  in  all  Supply  and  Trans- 
port Depots  in  order  to  release  fighting  men),  it 
has  been  found  necessary  to  have  a  staff  of  techni- 
cally trained  men  to  scrutinise  every  Demand  to 
verify  its  accuracy  and  to  insure  that  the  parts 
shipped  are  suitable  for  the  vehicle  for  which  they 
are  intended.  The  men  who  do  this  work  are 
called  Scrutineers.  After  deciding  that  the  item  de- 
manded can  be  legitimately  supplied  the  Scrutineer 
marks  its  catalogue  number  on  the  Demand  in  red 
ink,  which  locates  it  at  once  in  the  Ledger  or  Stock 
Account  of  the  Depot  and  enables  the  correct  issue 
to  be  made  in  the  Store.  This  is  merely  insurance 
against  the  possibility  of  mistakes  in  numbers. 

In  order  to  assist  the  Scrutineer  in  his  work 
Makers'  catalogues  of  spare  parts  were  formerly 
used,  but  these  were  found  to  be  so  inaccurate  that 
what  is  called  a  Vocabulary  has  been  compiled  by 
each  Depot  for  its  use.  This  Vocabulary  is  one 
of  the  many  distinct  and  permanent  contributions 
that  motor  transport  operation  in  the  war  is  mak- 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  TRANSPORT      141 

ing  to  the  development  of  the  whole  automobile 
business.  Each  Vocabulary  is  a  sort  of  encyclo- 
pedia for  the  particular  vehicle  with  which  it  deals. 
It  contains  a  complete  list  of  each  and  every  part, 
its  description,  its  part  number,  the  quantity  used 
per  vehicle  and  finally  the  card  number  which  iden- 
tifies it  in  the  Depot  Ledger  account. 

These  are  the  purely  formal  details.  More  im- 
portant is  the  information  as  to  the  interchange- 
ability  of  the  various  parts  so  that  when  a  certain 
spare  is  out  of  stock  another  from  another  car  can 
be  issued  and  used  in  its  place.  Here  is  where 
the  vocabulary  will  be  of  inestimable  benefit  to  the 
motor  manufacturer  everywhere.  It  will  teach  the 
maker  of  a  specific  product  facts  about  his  own 
product  that  he  never  knew  before. 

But  the  Vocabulary  contains  other  information 
of  value  to  the  administration  of  Supply.  As  a 
result  of  many  conferences  between  the  technical 
officers  of  the  various  Depots  the  stocks  of  "spares" 
have  been  reduced  to  the  fewest  possible  shapes  and 
sizes  and  a  drastic  censorship  of  accessories  and 
fittings  established.  This  censorship  deals  with  arti- 
cles which  in  time  of  war  are  considered  as  luxuries 
and  therefore  not  permissible  upon  the  ground  of 
economy.  Thus,  only  staff  vehicles  are  permitted 
to  have  electric  light  equipment;  others  are  denied 
mechanical  horns;  certain  cars  are  not  allowed 
speedometers  and  so  on. 

In  the  same  way  it  has  been  decreed  that  cer- 


142  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

tain  parts  must  be  made  by  the  workshops  for  the 
units  in  the  field  in  order  to  keep  down  the  de- 
mands on  the  parts  manufacturers.  This  refers,  of 
course,  only  to  the  simplest  pieces.  If  an  officer  re- 
ports that  he  cannot  make  these  parts  he  is  told  that 
he  must  or  do  without  them.  It  makes  for  conser- 
vation. 

To  sum  up,  the  Vocabulary  insures  accuracy  of 
issue,  and  permits  no  discrepancies.  More  than 
this,  it  is  bringing  about  a  standardisation  of  parts 
which  is  one  of  the  greatest  possible  aids  not  onl}/ 
to  the  whole  Army  Transport  Service,  but  to  the 
automobile  manufacturer  generally.  It  is  not  say- 
ing too  much  to  add  that  the  ownership  of  one  of 
these  complete  Vocabularies  would  be  an  invaluable 
asset  to  any  motor  maker. 

To  return  to  "spares"  issue  again,  all  parts  are 
kept  in  bins  in  warehouses  as  nearly  fireproof  as 
possible.  Every  precaution  must  be  taken  to  pro- 
tect the  stocks  because  in  the  case  of  those  intend- 
ed for  American  cars  they  must  travel  across  three 
thousand  miles  of  submarine  infested  seas  and  any 
shortage  would  work  a  great  hardship. 

Usually  there  is  one  shed  or  hangar  for  every 
tv/o  makes  of  cars.  The  sharpest  check  is  kept  on 
the  state  of  supply.  Hence  alongside  each  bin 
hangs  what  is  called  a  Provision  Card.  It  is  very 
much  like  the  Tallyboard  which  is  used  to  record 
the  state  of  the  stocks  of  supplies  in  the  Base  Sup- 
ply Depots.    On  this  Provision  Card  is  written  the 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  TRANSPORT     143 

name  of  the  part,  the  vehicle  for  which  it  is  in- 
tended, the  name  of  the  maker,  the  horse  power 
or  type,  and  the  part  number  in  the  catalogue  of 
Stores.  Under  this  is  a  specific  Ust  of  Demands 
made  up  to  date  for  this  part,  the  number  issued, 
the  amount  of  stock  on  hand  and  the  last  order  on 
the  Home  Depot  in  England  for  renewal  of  supply. 
An  officer  walking  through  the  shed  can  thus  ap- 
praise the  supply  situation  in  a  very  few  minutes. 
Every  Depot  keeps  a  two  months'  supply  of  every 
item,  the  supply  being  based  on  the  average  monthly 
consumption  of  the  three  preceding  months. 

Four  vouchers  are  issued  for  every  spare.  One 
goes  with  the  article  itself,  another  remains  behind 
at  the  Depot  while  the  other  two  are  sent  by  post 
to  insure  the  arrival  of  some  evidence  of  the  ship- 
ment. One  of  these  is  signed  by  the  consignee  and 
returned  to  the  Depot  as  a  receipt.  He  keeps  the 
other  for  his  own  records. 

One  iron-clad  rule  of  supply  gives  a  side-light  on 
the  curb  on  waste.  No  new  spare  part  is  issued 
until  the  old  part  is  tendered  in  exchange.  If  the 
part  is  destroyed  a  complete  report  on  the  manner 
of  destruction  is  required. 

The  whole  business  of  spare  supply  has  devel- 
oped a  curious  kink  in  human  nature.  During  the 
past  three  years  army  experience  has  proved  that 
every  transport  column  has  a  tendency  to  hoard 
spare  parts,  which  is  a  more  or  less  unfair  proce- 
dure because  the  whole  Supply  organisation  is  based 


144  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

on  furnishing  actual  needs  with  a  fair  reserve  for 
emergency.  In  order  to  prevent  hoarding  every 
unit  is  required  to  keep  a  record  called  Stock  of 
Spare  Parts,  on  v^hich  must  be  recorded  the  exact 
stock  on  hand,  the  unit  requirements  and  any  sur- 
plus. These  sheets  are  inspected  periodically  by 
officers  v^ho  not  only  scrutinise  the  sheet  but  com- 
pare the  figures  on  it  with  the  actual  supply.  The 
hoarder  never  gets  away  with  it. 

After  spare  parts  the  most  important  supply  de- 
tail is  rubber  tires,  which  are  as  essential  to  the 
wellbeing  of  Transport  as  gasolene.  These  tires 
must  be  safeguarded  in  every  conceivable  way. 
They  are  kept  in  darkened  sheds  because  exposure 
to  steady  light  has  been  found  to  be  injurious. 

These  tires  are  arranged  in  long  racks  that  reach 
to  the  ceiling.  If  you  desire  some  idea  of  the  part 
that  rubber  is  playing  in  the  conduct  of  the  war 
just  inspect  one  of  these  warehouses.  At  one  Brit- 
ish Base  Mechanical  Transport  Depot  I  saw  44,000 
pneumatic  tires,  40,000  inner  tubes  and  17,000  solid 
tires  for  trucks  under  one  roof.  The  value  of 
rubber  tires  at  another  Depot  that  I  saw  was 
$3,750,000,  and  this,  you  must  remember,  is  merely 
one  small  item  in  the  expense  of  Mechanical  Trans- 
port. 

Compared  with  the  issue  of  spare  parts  the  sup- 
plying of  tires  is  child's  play.  Each  truck  or  car 
carries  the  usual  number  of  extra  tires,  which  tides 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  TRANSPORT     145 

them  over  any  emergency.  These  portable  stocks 
are  renewed  from  time  to  time. 

In  order  to  faciHtate  the  work  of  renewing  solid 
tires  huge  engine-driven  tire  presses  are  scattered 
throughout  the  army  zone.  Every  truck  driver  has 
a  map  showing  the  location  of  these  presses.  If  he 
breaks  a  tire  on  the  road  he  makes  a  bee  line  for 
one  of  these  first  aid  stations,  has  his  tire  pressed 
on  and  goes  about  his  business.  If,  by  any  chance, 
he  has  no  extra  tire  he  can  get  one  at  the  press, 
sign  for  it  and  it  is  charged  up  to  the  account  of  his 
unit. 

Spare  parts  are  not  the  only  troubles  that  beset 
the  Mechanical  Transport  Depot  Officer.  The  staff 
of  one  of  these  Depots  is  constantly  being  called 
upon  to  provide  a  variety  of  articles  that  tests  in- 
genuity to  the  last  degree.  Unexpected  needs  de- 
velop, for  example,  in  connection  with  the  water 
supply.  As  you  may  well  imagine,  every  pos- 
sible care  must  be  exercised  to  safeguard  the  water 
that  Tommy  drinks.  Before  making  one  of  their 
well  known  "victorious  retreats"  the  German  has 
a  nasty  habit  of  poisoning  wells.  Even  if  the  Boche 
did  not  tamper  with  the  water  supply  there  is  always 
danger  from  spies  who  seem  to  lurk  everywhere. 
No  officer  therefore  would  think  of  letting  his  men 
drink  out  of  a  well  in  a  new  area  without  having 
it  tested  first.  All  this  means  that  an  immense 
amount  of  filtration  and  purification  is  necessary. 

One  day  last  summer  the  Commanding  Officer 


146  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

of  a  Base  Mechanical  Transport  Depot  got  a  hurry- 
up  call  for  filter  sand  to  be  used  in  an  active  army 
area.  His  station  had  never  before  furnished  such 
material,  but  he  got  on  the  job  at  once  because  army 
requisitions  must  be  filled.  He  immediately  detailed 
a  temporary  officer  who  happened  to  be  a  chemist 
and  instructed  him  to  comb  the  sea  coast  until  he 
found  a  suitable  sand.  The  officer  located  w^hat  he 
v^anted,  built  a  small  drying  furnace  overnight  and 
the  improvised  filter  was  on  its  way  to  the  front 
the  next  morning. 

At  the  Base  Mechanical  Transport  Depot  for  the 
Southern  Line  you  find  precisely  the  same  organisa- 
tion as  in  the  North.  Here  a  whole  new  industry 
exists  for  the  salvaging  of  battered  spare  parts. 
Since  standardisation  of  parts  cannot  be  completely 
efifected,  homogeneity  of  make  is  the  next  best  thing. 
Hence  all  British  makes  of  trucks  and  cars  are  sup- 
plied from  the  Southern  Base,  which  permits  a 
similar  concentration  for  American  cars  at  the 
Northern  Depots. 

You  cannot  leave  these  Base  Depots  without  find- 
ing out  how  that  most  essential  of  all  motor  sup- 
plies— gasolene — is  handled.  At  every  Base  port  is 
a  huge  so-called  Petrol  Installation.  In  these  im- 
mense establishments  you  discover  an  efficiency,  a 
co-ordination  and  a  continuity  of  output  that  would 
do  credit  to  the  Standard  Oil  Company.  In  fact 
if  you  want  to  discover  a  real  War  Octopus  just 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  TRANSPORT     147 


locate  the  gasolene  end  of  Mechanical  Transport 
and  you  will  find  it. 

The  whole  army  petrol  supply  represents  an  in- 
teresting evolution.  In  the  early  period  of  the  war 
all  the  canning  and  reshipping  of  the  fuel  was  done 
at  a  certain  English  port.  This  was  very  easy  when 
the  monthly  consumption  was  only  250,000  gallons. 
But  as  the  armies  grew  and  the  fleets  of  Mechanical 
Transport  expanded  with  them  this  system  became 
impractical.  France  alone  uses  up  4,000,000  gal- 
lons of  gasolene  every  month;  Salonika  1,500,000, 
Egypt  90,000,  while  1,000,000  gallons  are  necessary 
for  the  Home  Forces. 

In  19 16  the  zone  of  gasolene  operations  for 
France  was  shifted  to  that  country.  The  tank  ships 
now  go  there  direct  from  the  Far  East  and  Ameri- 
ca, pipe  their  cargoes  into  huge  storage  tanks  at 
the  ports,  whence  it  is  piped  in  turn  to  the  canneries. 

Formerly  the  standard  petrol  pack  was  a  fifty 
gallon  steel  drum  for  the  truck  and  a  two  gallon  tin 
for  the  car.  The  drum,  however,  was  found  to  be 
heavy  and  costly  and  a  four-gallon  can  was  substi- 
tuted. The  two-gallon  receptacle  remains  in  use 
for  the  car. 

To  keep  the  armies  supplied  with  "gas"  a  tre- 
mendous industry  had  to  be  built  up  to  meet  the 
giant  needs.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war  most  of 
the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  cans  were  made  in 
England  and  shipped  to  France.  It  required  such 
a  tonnage  that  the  factories  were  literally  trans- 


148  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

ported  to  the  Base  Mechanical  Transport  Depots. 
The  swiftness  of  this  transition  illustrates  how  war 
has  galvanised  every  activity  that  touches  it. 

Here  is  an  instance  of  genuine  war-time  hustle. 
On  a  certain  Thursday  night  the  largest  of  these 
gasolene  can  factories  was  operating  in  a  town  in 
England.  Exactly  nine  days  afterwards  it  was  in 
full  swing  at  a  port  in  France.  Every  ton  of  ma- 
chinery had  been  moved  in  that  time  and  set  up 
without  mishap.  It  moved  into  a  series  of  aban- 
doned factories  that  had  been  carefully  prepared 
for  the  change.  Another  can  factory  rose  out  of  a 
marsh  in  exactly  eight  weeks.  In  this  case  wooden 
buildings  had  to  be  erected  and  the  machinery  as- 
sembled in  England  and  shipped  over.  The  con- 
struction and  operation  of  these  factories  in  France 
has  released  six  ships  that  are  now  employed  for 
other  tonnage. 

These  can  factories  work  day  and  night.  The 
operatives  are  English  boys  too  young  to  fight,  but 
who  are  a  part  of  the  army  organisation  and  wear 
khaki.  Just  as  soon  as  they  reach  military  age  they 
go  into  the  fighting  forces  or  the  Army  Service 
Corps.  Meanwhile  they  are  drilled  and  get  a  rudi- 
mentary idea  of  the  military  game.  It  keeps  them  fit. 
These  boys  are  supplemented  by  thousands  of 
French  women  who  adapt  themselves  surprisingly 
well  to  the  labour-saving  machinery. 

The  new  cans  go  straight  from  the  factory  to  the 
filling  room,  where  women  do  all  the  work.     From 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  TRANSPORT     149 

eight  to  ten  thousand  cans  are  filled'  every  day. 
Railway  tracks  run  straight  into  these  annexes  and 
every  day  four  solid  trains  of  gasolene  go  up  the 
line  from  each  Depot.  The  standard  railway 
freight  car  in  France  contains  1,200  gallons  of  fuel 
and  each  train  averages  40  cars.  Immense  as  this 
siipply  seems,  it  is  just  enough  to  keep  the  voracious 
engine  of  British  Mechanical  Transport  tuned  up 
and  humming. 


VI— The  Motor  Under  Fire 


WHEN  you  reach  the  Advanced  Mechanical 
Transport  Depot  you  are  one  step  nearer 
to  actual  army  operations.  It  is  the  link 
between  Field  and  Base — the  emergency  clearing 
house  through  which  a  stream  of  supplies  flows 
steadily. 

These  Advanced  Depots  do  a  big  business  in 
spare  parts.  Each  station  keeps  a  month's  supply 
of  parts,  tires,  tools  and  accessories  on  hand.  A 
simple  and  comprehensive  system  is  in  operation. 
As  soon  as  a  Demand  for  stores  arrives  the  items 
are  written  on  a  card  which  has  a  number.  This 
number  becomes  the  permanent  record  of  the  order 
through  all  the  successive  stages  of  filling,  packing 
and  shipping.  Thus  any  detail  of  it  can  be  easily 
traced.  A  so-called  Issue  and  Receipt  Voucher  is 
issued  in  duplicate  for  every  order.  One  of  these 
is  retained  by  the  consignor  while  the  other  is  signed 
by  the  consignee  at  Rail  Head,  who  returns  it  as  a 
receipt  for  goods  delivered. 

Every  detail  of  work  at  an  Advanced  Mechanical 
Transport  Depot  contributes  to  the  facility  of 
operation.  All  supplies,  for  instance,  are  divided 
into  two  groups.  One,  marked  A,  includes  equip- 
ment for  British  made  cars,  while  the  other,  marked 
B,   is  devoted  to  the  needs  of   American  makes. 

150 


THE  MOTOR  UNDER  FIRE  151 

When  the  Demand  comes  in  it  can  immediately  be 
stamped  with  one  of  these  distinguishing  letters. 

One  detail  will  show  the  efficiency  of  the  Ad- 
vanced station  system.  At  the  close  of  each  day's 
business  every  item  that  has  been  Demanded  and 
packed  that  day  must  be  accounted  for.  It  must 
either  be  shipped,  packed,  or  in  the  shipping  bin 
ready  to  go  up  in  the  sectional  Pack  Train  the  fol- 
lowing morning.  If  it  is  out  of  stock  the  Demand  for 
it  must  be  on  the  way  to  the  Base  Depot  to  be  filled. 
In  this  way  there  is  no  "hang  over"  from  day  to 
day.  The  whole  scheme  of  Mechanical  Supply  is 
based  upon  the  idea  that  there  must  be  no  inter- 
ference with  traffic. 

The  issuance  of  parts  and  accessories,  important 
as  it  is,  constitutes  but  one  phase  of  motor  renewal. 
Every  day  trucks  are  smashed  by  shell  fire,  staff 
cars  are  disabled  and  motorcycles  wrecked.  If  re- 
pairable the  job  must  be  done  at  once.  To  watch 
this  operation  you  must  come  still  further  afield  to 
what  is  known  as  the  Heavy  Repair  Shop.  These 
shops  are  located  in  towns  that  skirt  the  zones  of 
the  armies.  They  must  be  immune  from  shell  fire 
although  they  are  sometimes  bombarded  by  aircraft. 
They  are  complete  motor  factories  employing  hun- 
dreds of  men  and  women. 

The  Heavy  Repair  Shops  are  all  fed,  in  the  main, 
from  the  Casualty  Park.  Here  you  are  bang  up 
against  the  ravage  that  war  wreaks.  A  Casualty 
Park  is  precisely  what  its  name  implies.     It  is  the 


152  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

place  where  the  wrecks  of  war  are  dumped,  sorted 
out,  sent  on  to  be  repaired  or  consigned  to  the  junk 
heap. 

Go  to  one  of  these  Parks  and  in  the  heaped-up 
ruins  of  transport  you  get  a  vivid  cross  section  of 
war.  If  these  mute  and  gaping  wounds  could  speak 
they  would  unfold  a  tale  of  sacrifice  and  death 
written  in  blood  and  agony  on  many  an  unsung 
field. 

A  shell-shattered  truck  visualises  the  tragedy  of 
a  Divisional  Supply  Column  that  has  ploughed 
through  the  night  with  its  freight  of  food  for  the 
front  and  met  disaster  at  a  turn  of  the  road.  A  rid- 
dled ambulance  shows  how  an  errand  of  succor  was 
halted  by  the  shrapnel  that  knows  neither  mercy  nor 
charity.  The  twisted  remnant  of  a  motorcycle  is 
eloquent  tribute  to  the  courage  of  a  gallant  des- 
patch rider  who  rushed  to  his  doom  on  some  hell- 
swept  highway  while  the  mangled  staff  car  proves 
that  the  men  who  direct  the  fighting  are  in  the 
turmoil  themselves.  This  mud-spattered  and  san- 
guinary mass  of  wreckage  is  a  grim  and  ghastly 
gallery  that  pictures  the  heroism  of  the  Army  Ser- 
vice Corps. 

In  connection  with  these  Casualty  Parks  is  an 
interesting  piece  of  war  psychology.  They  are  all 
screened  from  the  highway  so  as  to  be  invisible  to 
the  traffic  that  moves  up  and  down.  There  is  a 
definite  reason  for  this.  If  an  army  chauffeur  go- 
ing up  to  the  front  for  the  first  time  with  a  brand 


THE  MOTOR  UNDER  FIRE  153 

new  truck  sees  the  horrible  havoc  that  shells  create 
his  enthusiasm  is  not  likely  to  be  fired  nor  will  his 
war  spirit  be  increased.  After  seeing  a  lorry  that 
has  been  put  out  of  commission  he  is  apt  to  say  to 
himself:  "What's  the  use  of  going  up  anyway?" 
It  is  precisely  like  the  effect  produced  upon  a  man 
who  goes  into  a  hospital  for  an  operation  and  is 
required  to  pass  through  the  morgue  on  the  way  to 
his  room. 

At  the  Casualty  Parks  every  piece  of  wreckage 
is  carefully  inspected  with  a  view  to  repair  or  sal- 
vage. If  it  is  absolutely  beyond  rehabilitation  all 
the  available  metal  is  extracted,  melted  down  and 
used  again,  while  the  accessories,  like  lamps,  go  to 
the  salvage  shop  to  be  restored. 

A  repairable  vehicle,  no  matter  how  badly  bat- 
tered, goes  without  delay  to  the  Heavy  Repair 
Shop,  whence  it  emerges  like  new.  These  shops, 
like  every  other  industrial  institution  allied  to  Sup- 
ply and  Transport,  are  marvels  of  organisation. 
When  a  truck,  or  rather  the  remnants  of  a  truck, 
reach  the  establishment  its  history  is  written  on  a 
card  just  like  the  record  of  a  patient  is  registered 
as  soon  as  he  enters  a  hospital.  In  fact  the  Heavy 
Repair  Shop  is  the  Hospital  of  Mechanical  Trans- 
port. Every  stage  of  vehicle  reconstruction  is  noted, 
first  in  a  Daily,  and  later  in  a  Weekly  Record  of 
Repair. 

Through  the  medium  of  a  friendly  rivalry  in  out- 
put these  shops  are  kept   constantly  speeded   up. 


154  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

This  is  done  by  posting  the  records  of  the  various 
shops  where  the  men  can  see  them.  The  results  are 
very  striking.  When  X  shop  learned  one  day  last 
August  that  Y  shop  had  overhauled  and  issued  67 
trucks  in  one  week  it  got  an  extra  move  on  itself 
and  turned  out  81  the  next  week.  The  shops  are 
manned  by  skilled  mechanics.  The  foremen  are 
usually  non-commissioned  officers,  who  had  similar 
jobs  in  automobile  factories  in  England,  while  the 
superintendents  and  heads  of  departments  are  motor 
manufacturers  or  engineers. 

Closely  associated  with  the  largest  Heavy  Re- 
pair Shop  in  France  is  an  institution  which  has 
tremendous  meaning  for  the  United  States  in  her 
war  preparation.  I  refer  to  the  School  for  Officers. 
Here  the  aspirants  for  commissions  in  the  Mechani- 
cal Transport  Service  get  their  training  in  a  course 
of  instruction  that  would  do  credit  to  the  most 
thoroughly  organised  business  university. 

There  is  every  detail  of  a  technical  college.  The 
lecture  rooms  are  equipped  with  working  models 
of  every  section  of  an  automobile.  You  can  see 
engines  working  and  crank  shafts  turning.  In  one 
hall  is  a  complete  and  labelled  collection  of  every 
part  and  accessory  that  belongs  to  a  motor  car  or 
a  truck.  Every  class  is  limited  to  twenty  men, 
which  enables  each  member  to  ask  all  the  questions 
he  wants  to  ask  and  to  be  carefully  cross-examined 
in  turn. 

Each  applicant  for  a  commission  must  pass  an 


THE  MOTOR  UNDER  FIRE  155 

oral  and  written  examination  and  is  also  required 
to  give  a  demonstration  of  his  ability  to  run  a  car 
or  truck  under  actual  traffic  conditions  in  the  war 
zone.  For  one  thing  he  is  required  to  operate  a  five 
ton  truck  on  the  road  at  night  with  huge  caterpillar 
tractors  snorting  all  around  him  and  making  things 
highly  uncomfortable  for  the  driver.  His  gear  is 
tangled  up  by  mechanical  experts  and  he  is  made 
to  straighten  it  out  and  repair  it  within  a  given 
time.  Clad  in  overalls,  he  is  put  at  a  forge  to  learn 
exactly  how  castings  are  made.  He  must  take  a 
hand  at  assembling  a  car  and  do  his  bit  in  the  engine 
room.  This  is  why  the  School  of  Instruction  is  lo- 
cated near  a  Heavy  Repair  Shop,  where  there  are 
excellent  facilities  to  study  the  making  and  the  re- 
making of  all  types  of  Mechanical  Transport  from 
motorcycles  to  Four  Wheel  Drives. 

The  commissioned  ranks  of  Mechanical  Trans- 
port draw  to  a  considerable  extent  upon  men  who 
have  had  to  work  with  their  hands  all  their  lives. 
The  moment  they  get  commissions  they  are  consid- 
ered to  be  "Officers  and  Gentlemen."  They  must 
be  prepared  to  meet  the  responsibilities  of  their  new 
social  station.  Hence  they  are  polished  off  with  a 
course  in  etiquette  and  deportment. 

Just  as  soon  as  a  truck  or  car  is  completely  over- 
hauled it  is  sent  to  what  is  known  as  the  Reserve 
Vehicle  Park,  which  bears  the  same  relation  to 
France  or  the  field  anywhere  that  the  Vehicle  Pool 
does  to  England.     In  other  words,  it  is  the  great 


156  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

Reserve  Store  that  fills  the  gaps  made  by  enemy 
shells,  accidents,  breakdowns  or  general  wear  and 
tear.  It  has  two  sources  of  supply — one  the  re- 
paired vehicle  from  the  Heavy  Repair  Shop,  as  you 
have  already  seen,  and  the  other  the  new  vehicle 
which  comes  to  the  Base  Mechanical  Transport 
Depot  which  receives  all  equipment  as  it  arrives 
from  England. 

To  see  one  of  these  Reserve  Parks  is  to  get  an 
unforgettable  impression  of  the  scope  of  Mechani- 
cal Transport  in  the  war.  Not  even  the  seemingly 
endless  procession  of  supply  and  ammunition  trains 
rattling  along  the  roads  gives  you  such  an  idea  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  Army  Transport  world  on 
tires.  At  one  Park  I  saw  1,400  vehicles  which  in- 
cluded 1,000  trucks  and  300  open  and  closed  cars. 
The  rest  were  ambulances.  They  were  all  parked 
in  long  lines  that  made  a  noble  and  really  inspiring 
array  with  each  vehicle  freshly  painted,  its  brass 
gleaming  like  a  mirror  in  the  autumn  sunlight.  As 
I  looked  at  those  shining  acres  I  realised  that  before 
many  weeks  elapsed  the  paint  would  cease  to  glisten, 
there  would  be  dents  in  the  engine  armour,  and 
more  than  one  vehicle  that  now  stood  so  proudly 
would  be  in  splinters  by  the  roadside  or  patients  in 
the  Repair  Hospital. 

There  is  practically  no  bookkeeping  at  a  Reserve 
Vehicle  Park,  nor  is  it  necessary.  When  a  car  is 
received  a  record  of  it  is  made  on  a  card,  which 
becomes  part  of  what  is  called  a  Live  Index.     At 


THE  MOTOR  UNDER  FIRE         157 

the  same  time  it  is  chalked  up  on  a  huge  blackboard. 
This  blackboard  enables  the  Commanding  Officer  of 
the  Park  to  see  at  a  glance  just  what  stock  he  has 
on  hand.  When  a  Demand  for  Trucks  or  cars 
comes  in  he  can  fill  it  at  once.  Just  as  soon  as  the 
car  goes  out  the  date  of  departure  and  destination 
are  registered  on  its  card,  which  is  now  transferred 
to  another  index  called  Demand  Index. 

Perhaps  you  are  wondering  about  the  human 
equipment  of  these  cars.  This  is  automatic  be- 
cause, as  I  explained  earlier,  the  moment  a  truck 
leaves  England  it  carries  with  it  a  driver  and  an 
extra  man.  These  two  men  stick  to  the  car  no  mat- 
ter where  it  goes.  If  a  car  is  laid  up  at  the  Heavy 
Repair  Shop  they  are  required  to  make  themselves 
useful  about  the  factory.  At  the  Vehicle  Park  they 
must  do  likewise.  They  are  required  to  keep  the 
cars  in  perfect  order  so  that  the  entire  Reserve  Sup- 
ply can  be  moved  on  half  an  hour's  notice.  This 
means  that  every  truck  and  car  has  its  gasolene  tank 
and  extra  tins  filled,  its  tools  in  perfect  order  and 
every  accessory  intact.  A  turn  of  the  crank  is  all 
that  is  needed  to  put  it  in  commission. 

I  saw  an  extraordinary  demonstration  of  the  up- 
to-the-minute  fitness  of  the  vehicles  at  a  certain 
Reserve  Park.  Fire,  of  course,  is  one  of  the  great 
hazards  and  every  possible  precaution  is  taken 
against  such  disaster.  For  my  benefit  a  fire  drill 
was  given  one  afternoon.  The  Commanding  Officer 
asked  me  to  indicate  a  vehicle  that  would  be  the 


158  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

basis  for  the  alarm.  I  selected  a  three  ton  truck 
in  the  middle  of  a  line  of  sixty.  These  trucks  faced 
one  way,  while  backed  up  against  them  were  sixty 
more  trucks  facing  the  other.  In  all  directions  ex- 
tended lanes  of  every  type  of  motor  car  used  in  the 
army.  I  put  a  can  in  front  of  the  truck  indicated 
and  the  officer  rang  the  fire  alarm  without  any  pre- 
vious warning  to  the  men. 

In  less  than  three  minutes  after  that  bell  sounded 
the  truck  in  question  was  out  on  the  roadside  and  a 
sufficient  gap  had  been  made  in  the  two  lines  of 
cars  to  prevent  any  spread  of  flames  had  it  been 
impossible  to  remove  the  car  that  was  supposed  to 
be  on  fire.  It  would  have  been  absolutely  isolated. 
Every  man  at  the  Park  had  a  definite  thing  to  do 
and  he  did  it  in  record  time.  Forty  of  them  imme- 
diately manned  trucks  and  got  them  out  of  the 
hypothetical  fire  zone.  Twenty  others  formed  the 
crew  of  the  motor  fire  engine  and  water  tank  which 
accompanied  it.  Here  was  a  fire  department  and 
portable  water  mains — a  imique  combination. 

The  moment  a  truck  goes  to  a  unit  it  is  stamped 
with  the  device  of  the  Army  to  which  it  is  attached. 
Each  large  fighting  unit  has  its  own  hall-mark.  It 
may  be  a  grenade,  a  shamrock,  a  star  or  a  crown. 
All  ammunition  trucks  are  marked  with  a  large 
white  shell,  which  identifies  them  at  once.  The 
French  markings  are  much  more  frivolous  than  the 
British.  You  can  see  their  huge  camions — the 
French  word  for  trucks — ornamented  with  pictures 


THE  MOTOR  UNDER  FIRE  159 


of  barking  dogs,  crowing  cocks  or  running  hares. 

All  vehicles  that  break  down  in  the  field  are  not 
sent  to  the  Heavy  Repair  Shop,  which  is  only  used 
for  real  casualties.  Scores  of  trucks  are  only  slight- 
ly damaged  every  day.  For  these  the  shop  reverses 
the  usual  procedure  and  literally  goes  to  the  relief 
of  the  disabled.  This  brings  us  to  the  whole  system 
of  Mobile  Repair  Shops,  which  contribute  the  most 
thrilling  chapter  in  the  whole  story  of  Mechanical 
Transport  reconstruction. 

You  are  now  up  in  the  zones  of  the  armies  where 
shells  are  flying,  where  the  mechanics  take  their 
lives  In  their  hands  with  the  tools,  and  where  trucks, 
cars  and  motorcycles  limp  in  from  the  battle  areas, 
have  their  wounds  dressed  and  go  back  on  the  job. 
They  correspond  with  the  so-called  walking  cases 
with  the  wounded. 

Chief  among  these  field  patients  are  the  gallant 
Divisional  Supply  Columns — the  squadrons  that  get 
the  food  there  no  matter  what  lies  in  the  path,  and 
the  no  less  gallant  Ammunition  Parks.  These  two 
units  represent  the  Farthest  North  of  the  Army  Me- 
chanical Transport. 

A  Mobile  Repair  Shop  is  a  miniature  motor  fac- 
tory on  wheels.  It  is  usually  built  on  a  five  ton 
truck  chassis,  provides  its  own  motor  power  and  is 
thus  enabled  to  go  up  and  down  the  war  area. 
Usually  a  Shop  has  a  definite  and  fixed  abode,  but 
there  is  always  an  extra  Shop  that  answers  hurry- 
up  calls.    I  mean  by  this  that  if  a  truck  breaks  down 


i6o  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

on  the  road  or  gets  mired  in  a  ditch  the  mountain 
comes  to  Mahomet.  There  are  scores  of  minor  de- 
fects and  accidents,  however,  that  do  not  require 
this  procedure.  The  truck  or  car  goes  to  the  Re- 
pair Shop,  which  is  often  located  in  an  open  field. 
The  conduct  of  these  Shops  demands  courage  and 
stamina.  Like  the  Supply  and  Ammunition  trains, 
they  follow  in  the  wake  of  the  advancing  armies. 
They  are  in  truth  First  Aid  to  the  Mechanically 
Injured. 

The  Mobile  Shops  do  a  great  deal  more  than 
minor  repairs  on  the  spot.  They  extricate  trucks 
that  slip  into  shell  holes;  they  re-tire  vehicles  and 
they  deliver  the  derelicts  to  the  Heavy  Repair 
Shops.  The  nearest  parallel  to  this  whole  institu- 
tion that  I  can  think  of  is  the  Flying  Squadron  of  a 
Street  Railway,  which  is  a  portable  repair  shop  that 
goes  racing  up  and  down  the  tracks  binding  up  the 
wounds  of  traffic.  The  difference  between  the  Street 
Railway  Emergency  car  and  the  Mobile  Shop  is 
that  one  is  not  under  fire  and  the  other  is  exposed 
to  nearly  all  the  dangers  incurred  by  the  fighting 
armies. 

You  have  now  spanned  the  whole  Mechanical 
Transport  activity  from  factory  to  the  front.  You 
have  seen  how  the  motor  vehicle  brings  up  food, 
hauls  ammunition,  conveys  soldiers,  moves  the 
wounded  from  field  station  to  train  or  hospital,  fills 
up  Base  and  Advanced  Supply  Depots  with  stores 
and  renews  itself  with  clock-like  and  unfailing  reg- 


THE  MOTOR  UNDER  FIRE  i6i 

ularity.  This  machine  must  be  maintained  at  all 
hazards  because  a  breakdown  between  Rail  Head 
and  Refilling  Point,  for  example,  would  work  a 
very  serious  hardship  with  the  men  in  the  trenches 
while  an  interruption  between  Rail  Head  and  Am- 
munition Dump  might  jeopardise  the  success  of  ad- 
vance. 

How  then  is  the  army  vehicle  kept  fit  so  that, 
aside  from  the  damage  by  enemy  action  and  the  nat- 
ural hazards  of  congested  traffic,  it  remains  out  of 
the  repair  shop  and  does  its  job?  England  expects 
every  motor  truck  to  do  its  duty  and,  thanks  to  a 
remarkable  system  of  inspection,  it  does. 

To  see  just  how  this  system  works  you  must  re- 
trace your  steps  to  General  Headquarters  and  go 
with  me  into  the  office  of  General  Boyce,  who  is  the 
originator  and  head  of  the  whole  scheme.  It  is 
epitomised  on  a  big  chart  covered  with  red,  green, 
blue  and  black  marks,  that  hangs  on  the  wall  oppo- 
site him.  These  marks  indicate  the  exact  physical 
condition  of  every  transport  unit  in  the  field.  Here 
is  the  way  it  works : 

The  inspection  of  vehicles  is  by  Divisions,  each 
having  its  own  Mechanical  Transport  organisation 
which  bears  the  number  of  the  Division  to  which  it 
is  attached.  Just  as  soon  as  a  Division  Transport 
Unit  is  inspected  the  result  is  marked  on  the  chart 
in  colours.  If  it  registers  one  hundred  per  cent  in 
efficiency  and  upkeep  it  gets  a  green  mark;  if  the 
rating  is  seventy-five  per  cent  the  record  is  blue; 


i62  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

if  fifty  per  cent  it  is  red.  Any  rating  below  fifty 
per  cent  literally  gets  a  black  mark.  The  Director 
of  Transport,  therefore,  can  sit  at  his  desk  and 
know  from  the  color  scheme  in  front  of  him  the 
physical  state  of  the  organisation  he  controls. 

So  much  for  the  results  of  inspection.  Let  us 
now  watch  the  operation.  Under  General  Boyce  is 
a  staff  of  thirty  inspectors.  Although  they  wear 
British  uniforms  and  rank  as  lieutenants  and  cap- 
tains every  one  of  them  was  an  automobile  expert 
before  the  war.  Each  inspector  has  a  district.  His 
job  is  to  see  that  the  Mechanical  Transport  in  his 
bailiwick  is  thoroughly  inspected  every  three 
months.  This  means  that  every  car  is  overhauled 
four  times  a  year. 

These  inspectors  do  not  go  about  their  jobs  with 
a  brass  band.  They  show  up  at  Mechanical  Trans- 
port Unit  Headquarters  at  all  hours  of  the  day  or 
night.  I  went  with  one  of  these  inspectors  once  on 
a  very  characteristic  trip.  We  were  travelling  down 
a  well-beaten  road  in  the  zone  of  a  certain  army 
when  an  empty  three  ton  truck  came  into  view.  My 
companion  suddenly  turned  to  me  and  said: 

"I  have  a  hunch  that  there  is  something  the  mat- 
ter with  that  truck."  He  had  spent  much  time  in 
America  and  had  picked  up  some  of  our  slang  as 
you  observe. 

When  the  truck  came  alongside  he  stopped  it,  told 
the  chauffeur  who  he  was  and  and  immediately  pro- 
ceeded  to   examine    the   vehicle.    First   of   all   he 


THE  MOTOR  UNDER  FIRE  163 

glanced  at  the  driver's  Log.  In  five  minutes  he 
discovered  that  the  lubrication  pipe  w^as  on  the  verge 
of  becoming  choked.  If  this  had  not  been  located 
the  car  would  have  broken  down  before  it  had  gone 
much  further. 

These  inspectors  have  the  right  to  hold  up  cars 
anywhere  and  all  military  policemen  and  traffic  offi- 
cers (the  highways  of  war  are  as  adequately  policed 
as  Broadway  in  New  York  or  State  Street  in  Chi- 
cago) have  special  instructions  to  back  them  up  in 
every  possible  way.  An  inspector,  however,  would 
never  hold  up  a  loaded  truck.  If  he  sees  that  there 
is  anything  wrong  with  it  he  will  order  the  driver 
to  report  to  him  after  he  delivers  his  load. 

Watch  one  of  these  inspectors  in  action  and  you 
soon  understand  why  the  British  Mechanical  Trans- 
port is  so  efficient.  When  an  Army  Inspector  in- 
spects he  inspects  all  over.  He  wears  overalls  and 
gets  under  the  truck  or  car.  From  this  point  of 
first-hand  observafion  he  calls  out  his  discoveries 
to  a  stenographer  who  accompanies  him  on  all  his 
expeditions.  Thus  he  overlooks  nothing  and  has 
a  record  of  everything.  A  specific  report  is  made 
on  every  car  inspected.  It  covers  engine,  front  and 
back  axle,  transmission,  body  and  equipment  and 
does  not  overlook  the  inevitable  rope,  chain  and  kit 
of  digging  tools  that  every  army  truck  in  the  field 
is  required  to  carry.  Between  snow  and  mud  the 
truck  chauffeur  does  almost  as  much  digging  as 
the  soldiers  in  the  trenches. 


i64  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

When  an  inspector  overhauls  a  vehicle  he  usually 
takes  a  work  shop  officer  with  him  who  does  the 
manual  work.  The  Mechanical  Transport  inspec- 
tion also  includes  the  scrutiny  of  all  steam  trans- 
port used  in  the  field.  A  limited  number  of  steam 
engines  are  employed  to  haul  some  of  the  heavy 
guns.  With  them  boiler  inspection  is  the  most  im- 
portant detail. 

One  more  significant  feature  of  British  Mechani- 
cal Transport  remains  to  be  explained.  It  answers 
the  inevitable  question  which  any  survey  of  this 
tremendous  and  far-reaching  technical  activity 
would  provoke.  That  question  is:  "How  does  the 
Army  keep  track  of  more  than  fifty  thousand  vehi- 
cles that  are  being  constantly  shifted  from  place  to 
place?" 

The  answer  is  to  be  found  in  a  Registration  Sys- 
tem which  begins  as  soon  as  a  vehicle  enters  the 
service  and  continues  until  it  is  wiped  off  the  Trans- 
port Map.  Just  as  soon  as  a  truck,  for  instance, 
arrives  from  England  at  a  Base  Mechanical  Trans- 
port Depot  in  France  its  complete  physical  record 
is  written  on  what  is  called  a  Vehicle  Registration 
Form.  There  is  a  separate  sheet  for  each  make  of 
vehicle.  It  includes  the  War  Department  number, 
the  chassis  type  and  number,  the  engine  type  and 
number,  the  size  of  front  and  rear  tires  and  the 
drive. 

When  a  truck  is  assigned  to  a  unit  the  narrative 
of  its  travels  begins  and  a  careful  check  is  kept  on 


THE  MOTOR  UNDER  FIRE         165 

its  movements  from  that  hour  on.  Every  time  it  is 
transferred  from  one  unit  to  another  a  report  is 
sent  to  what  is  called  the  Census  Branch,  which  is 
located  in  a  little  French  town  not  many  miles  from 
General  Headquarters,  and  which  is  the  fountain 
head  of  all  information  about  the  great  Mechanical 
Transport  Fleet  in  France.  You  can  go  into  its 
office  any  day,  ask  for  the  location  of  a  truck  or 
car  and  find  out  in  less  than  five  minutes.  More 
than  this  you  can  get  the  complete  biography  of  the 
vehicle  from  the  time  it  entered  the  service. 

That  history  is  first  summarised  on  an  ordinary 
form  card  which  is  kept  in  a  Live  Index.  As  I  write 
I  have  before  me  a  copy  of  a  card  on  which  is 
typed  the  Army  Record  of  an  American  three  ton 
truck.  At  the  top  is  its  War  Department  number, 
the  make  and  the  type  and  number  of  chassis  and 
engine.  Below  is  a  complete  itemised  list  of  every 
unit  to  which  this  car  has  been  attached  and  the 
date  of  its  service  with  it. 

From  this  record  you  can  see  the  different  kind 
of  work  that  an  Army  Truck  is  called  upon  to  per- 
form. This  car's  experience  was  no  different  from 
that  of  thousands  of  others  scattered  throughout 
Northern  France. 

The  Card  Index,  however,  only  represents  the 
first  stage  of  Vehicle  Intelligence.  It  is  a  sort  of 
Information  Outpost.  All  the  data  in  it  and  much 
more  is  transferred  to  a  large  loose-leaf  ledger, 
which  constitutes  the  complete  Motor  Census  of  the 


i66  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

Army  Mechanical  Transport.  This  book,  which  is 
being  constantly  revised,  is  an  astonishing  efficiency 
exhibit,  and  would  be  worth  its  weight  in  gold  to 
any  motor  manufacturer.  It  is  indexed  under 
makes,  and  these  makes  in  turn  are  registered  ac- 
cording to  their  consecutive  chassis  numbers. 

Examine  a  leaf  taken  at  random  from  the  Census 
Ledger  and  you  can  see  exactly  how  it  works.  The 
one  that  I  shall  use  for  illustration  happens  to  deal 
with  one  of  the  best  known  English  makes.  On  it 
is  printed  (not  typed  mind  you)  the  date  that  the 
cars  or  ambulances  entered  the  service,  the  units 
to  which  they  have  been  attached,  the  War  De- 
partment and  chassis  numbers,  engine  types  and 
numbers,  the  size  of  the  tires  and  the  original  source 
of  the  car  or  truck.  In  the  case  of  a  purchased 
vehicle  the  factory  name  is  given.  Where  the  motor 
car  is  a  gift  from  private  individual  or  organisation 
the  name  of  the  donor  is  presented.  It  may  be  a 
duke  or  a  private  citizen.  If  a  car  or  truck  is  re- 
turned to  England  or  "scrapped"  this  information 
is  set  forth  in  a  separate  column.  The  Ledger  is  so 
devised  as  to  leave  plenty  of  blank  space  for  com- 
ing events  in  the  life  of  the  vehicle.  As  these  events 
happen  they  are  printed  on  small  slips  of  paper  and 
pasted  on  the  leaf.  Thus  the  Census  becomes  a 
really  notable  industrial  document. 

Its  value  is  as  varied  as  it  is  great.  Aside  from 
being  an  absolutely  infallible  and  up-to-date  reg- 
ister of  all  Mechanical  Transport  in  the  Army  it 


THE  MOTOR  UNDER  FIRE  167 

supplies  the  basis  for  the  adequate  provision  of 
spare  parts  and  accessories.  It  likewise  enables  the 
Financial  Adviser  to  the  War  Office  to  accurately 
estimate  Mechanical  Transport  expenditures  and  to 
write  off  all  vehicles  as  soon  as  they  are  useless. 
Like  the  Vocabulary,  it  is  a  definite  and  permanent 
contribution  to  the  uplift  of  the  whole  motor  indus- 
try— one  of  the  Compensations  of  War. 


Yll— The  Salvage  of  Battle 


WHATEVER  designation  the  Great  War 
may  have  in  history  no  one  will  ever  deny 
that,  among  other  things,  it  is  a  War  of 
Contrasts.  It  provides  the  amazing  spectacle  of 
German  and  Turk  lying  down  together;  of  ancient 
foes  like  England  and  France  lined  up  on  a  com- 
mon battlefront  of  freedom;  of  American  troops 
under  arms  marching  through  the  streets  of  Lon- 
don; of  Industry  reborn  and  Society  transformed. 
But  no  contrast — not  even  the  flowering  of  thrift 
amid  the  ruins  of  colossal  war  expenditure — is  so 
striking  as  the  welding  of  Waste  and  Conservation. 
Of  all  the  strange  bed- fellows  of  war  these  are  the 
strangest. 

From  time  immemorial  War  has  spelled  destruc- 
tion. Yet  out  of  the  vast  vortex  which  to-day  en- 
gulfs men,  money  and  materials,  is  coming  another 
tremendous  lesson  in  economy  that  will  make  peace 
efficient  and  orderly.  The  Salvage  of  War  has 
been  reduced  to  a  precise  science  and  is  a  definite 
and  inseparable  part  of  army  operations  in  the  field. 
The  hand  that  destroys  is  the  first  to  renew.  Here 
you  touch  the  least  known  of  the  many  activities 
that  go  to  make  up  the  stupendous  Business  of  War. 
Again  you  get  the  example  of  a  powerful  War 
Machine  that  began  with  almost  nothing.   The  first 

i68 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         169 

salvage  was  casual  and  depended,  in  the  main,  upon 
the  initiative  or  enterprise  of  individual  officers. 
Now^  it  is  a  full  fledged  War  Office  Department  with 
a  complete  and  far-reaching  organisation  all  its 
own  and  dedicated  solely  to  rehabilitation.  It  saves 
the  British  Government  millions  of  dollars  every 
year  and  points,  at  the  same  time,  a  moral  that 
nothing  else  could  so  forcibly  impress.  It  is  another 
Cinderella  of  the  Service — once  rejected,  even 
abused — that  has  developed  into  one  of  the  per- 
manent benefits  of  the  huge  conflict. 

In  former  wars  the  human  being  was  about  the 
only  thing  regarded  as  redeemable.  While  there  was 
life  there  was  always  the  proverbial  hope  that  the 
fighting  man  could  be  saved  and  possibly  restored 
to  some  usefulness.  As  for  arms,  ammunition, 
equipment,  food  and  stores  of  all  kinds  the  attitude 
was  different.  Why  waste  time  on  supplies  that 
could  be  renewed  ?  Everything  spoiled  or  damaged 
went  into  the  junk  heap  and  was  buried  or  burned. 
This  is  one  reason  why  War  became  the  real  syno- 
nym for  waste.  To  preach  reclamation  on  any  kind 
of  scale  was  almost  unsoldierly — it  sank  to  the 
basely  commercial  although  it  invited  the  inevitable 
post-war  inquiry  scandal. 

But  that  state  of  mind  existed  when  war,  as 
compared  with  present  day  operations,  was  on  a 
pigmy  scale.  With  a  host  equal  to  half  the  entire 
population  of  the  United  States  called  to  the  colors 
in  all  the  nations  involved,  and  with  an  average 


I70  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

daily  outlay  of  $160,000,000,  Governments  are  in- 
clined to  try  to  snatch  a  few  faggots  from  the 
Titanic  Fires.  The  British  efforts  in  this  direction 
have  created  an  Agency  of  Reconstruction  that  is 
a  marvel  of  administration.  The  legend  of  the  pig 
squeal,  phonographed  in  Chicago's  Packingtown,  to 
prove  that  the  Beef  Barons  waste  nothing,  has  a 
real  parallel  in  the  economies  now  practised  with 
army  food  alone. 

During  the  first  six  months  of  the  war — or  even 
longer — there  was  terrific  waste.  In  the  circum- 
stances this  was  a  very  natural  procedure.  With 
food  and  equipment  the  whole  effort  of  the  War 
Office  was  concentrated  on  one  ambition — to  fill 
stomachs,  to  clothe  bodies  and  to  arm  hands.  In 
the  mad  rush  to  stem  the  German  advance  there 
was  no  time  to  think  of  economy. 

You  had  only  to  go  to  any  one  of  the  Mobilisation 
depots  in  England  when  Kitchener's  First  Hundred 
Thousand  was  being  raised  to  find  out  that  the 
British  Government  was  looked  upon  by  both  the 
civil  and  military  population  as  the  Lady  Bountiful. 
When  battalions  moved  away  from  Salisbury  Plain 
or  one  of  the  other  great  training  camps  nearly 
every  house  within  a  radius  of  fifteen  miles  was 
not  only  equipped  with  one  or  more  army  blankets 
but  army  food  and  stores  of  all  description.  When 
scores  of  men  went  home  on  leave  their  rations 
were  drawn  by  the  Quartermaster  Sergeants  just 
the  same.    It  went  to  the  garbage  heap  or  to  the 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         171 

camp  followers.  When  an  economically  disposed 
officer  remonstrated  with  his  men  about  the  ungodly 
waste  the  invariable  reply  was: 

"The  Government  is  rich  and  can  afford  it.  Why 
worry  r 

Curiously  enough  the  first  sense  of  saving  mani- 
fested itself  where  there  was  the  greatest  destruc- 
tion. This  means  that  it  began  in  France.  It  is 
not  surprising  also  that  it  started  with  the  Scotch, 
whose  heroism  under  fire  is  only  equalled  by  their 
thrift  behind  the  lines.  Instinct  made  the  High- 
lander shy  at  the  immense  waste.  He  was  not  so 
keen  as  his  English  mate  to  discard  a  slightly  soiled 
kilt  or  a  damaged  coat.  His  example  was  contagi- 
ous because,  when  all  is  said  and  done,  thrift  is  a 
habit  easily  acquired. 

Originally  only  guns  and  rifles  were  salvaged. 
The  time-honoured  method  of  disposing  of  the 
debris  of  battle  was  to  assemble  it  in  huge  piles  and 
set  fire  to  them.  They  proved  to  be  costly  bonfires. 
Along  in  191 5  began  the  practice  of  segregating  the 
wreckage  of  the  battlefields  and  hauling  it  back  to 
so-called  "Dumps."  The  uniforms  were  taken  out 
and  sold  for  rags  at  $250  a  ton.  Only  the  brass 
buttons  were  retained.  Practically  all  the  other 
refuse  was  destroyed. 

One  day  the  Quartermaster  General  to  all  the 
Forces,  Lieutenant  General  Sir  John  S.  Cowans, 
had  an  inspiration.  He  said  to  himself:  "If  these 
uniforms  are  worth  $250  a  ton  to  the  junk  man 


172  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

they  ought  to  be  worth  a  good  deal  more  to  the 
army.    Let  us  try  to  restore  them." 

As  a  result  only  actual  rags  went  to  the  rag  man 
and  the  near-rags  were  sent  to  Paris  to  be  restored, 
out  of  this  grew  the  great  Paris  Ordnance  Depot, 
which  to-day  employs  nearly  four  thousand  women 
on  salvage  and  saves  the  British  Government  in  ac- 
tual money  more  than  $12,000,000  a  year. 

Such  was  the  beginning  of  British  Army  Salvage 
on  any  kind  of  organised  scale.  Long  before  191 5 
had  rounded  out  its  twelve  months  of  blood  and 
disaster  there  was  a  Salvage  Squad  in  every  army 
unit.  The  work  has  grown  steadily  in  scope  and 
energy.  To-day  almost  before  the  flame  and  fury 
of  battle  subside  these  squads  are  on  the  battle 
ground,  gathering  up  abandoned  steel  helmets,  rifles, 
belts,  haversacks,  bayonets,  shell  cases,  unexploded 
bombs  and  grenades,  clothes,  leggins,  shoes — in 
fact  every  scrap  of  stuff  that  can  be  transported. 

All  this  equipment  is  thrown  into  motor  trucks 
or  wagons  and  hauled  behind  the  lines  where  it 
is  sorted  out  by  individual  items,  loaded  into  freight 
cars  and  sent  off  to  the  various  bases  to  be  re- 
claimed there  or  sent  on  to  England  to  be  salvaged. 
Everything  must  be  redeemed  or  yield  the  British 
Government  some  return  as  junk  or  raw  material. 
Only  the  dead  remain  where  they  fall.  They  alone 
are  the  unsalvaged. 

Formerly  all  the  shoes  to  be  salvaged  were 
shipped  to  a  certain  port  in  the  north  of  France; 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         173 

the  uniforms,  blankets,  kilts,  underwear  and  rubber 
boots  were  overhauled  in  Paris,  while  most  of  the 
Ordnance  went  to  England.  As  the  litter  of  battle 
grew  in  volume  it  became  necessary  to  increase  the 
Salvage  Depots  until  there  were  three  shoe  saving 
stations  and  half  a  dozen  Ordnance  Reclamation 
Establishments  in  France  and  in  England.  A  small 
army  had  to  be  recruited  for  this  work. 

With  the  development  of  the  salvage  idea  nat- 
urally came  a  definite  organisation  for  its  conduct. 
The  physical  end  is  under  the  immediate  direction 
of  Army  Service  Corps  Officers  who  in  civil  life 
were  engaged  in  some  kind  of  business.  The  rank 
and  file  are  enlisted  men  invalided  out  of  active 
service  or  unfit  for  fighting  by  reason  of  physical 
disability  or  over-age.  For  two  years  each  army 
in  the  field  had  a  Salvage  Head  while  the  entire 
work  was  supervised  by  the  Quartermaster  General 
to  all  the  Forces,  who  had  a  ranking  representative 
at  General  Headquarters  in  France. 

The  scope  of  salvage  reached  such  a  point  (its 
financial  turnover  represented  many  millions  of  dol- 
lars while  the  number  of  articles  retrieved  grew 
to  an  almost  incredible  total)  that  it  has  developed 
into  what  the  British  Officer  would  call  a  separate 
"show";  that  is,  a  complete  and  self-sustaining 
Branch  of  the  Army. 

You  can  see  the  whole  Scheme  cf  Salvage  set 
forth  on  one  of  the  huge  charts  similar  to  those 
that  outline  the  strategy  of  Supply  and  Transport 


174  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

and  their  allied  activities.  Once  more  you  have  the 
helpful  pyramid  indicating  every  step  of  a  vast 
business  system. 

The  apex  of  the  pyramid  is  the  Salvage  Board, 
composed  of  the  Quartermaster  General  to  all  the 
Forces,  the  Master  General  of  Ordnance,  the 
Director  General  of  Military  Aeronautics,  the 
Director  of  Supply  and  Transport,  the  Director 
of  Ordnance  and  Equipment  Stores,  the  Surveyor 
General  of  Supply,  the  Director  of  Military  Move- 
ments, a  representative  of  the  Ministry  of  Muni- 
tions and  two  commercial  members.  The  Voice  and 
Interpreter  of  the  Board  is  the  Director  of  Sal- 
vage, Brigadier  General  L.  W.  Atcherley.  In  the 
nature  of  his  executive  duties  he  corresponds  to  the 
Director  of  Supply  and  Transport,  who  is  housed 
under  the  same  roof.  Under  him  are  five  Deputy 
Directors  of  Salvage  in  England,  each  one  in  charge 
of  a  separate  Department.  Their  opposite  numbers 
in  the  field  are  called  Controllers  of  Salvage.  There 
is  one  with  every  army  unit  overseas  whether  it  be 
France,  Salonika,  Egypt,  Africa  or  Mesopotamia. 
In  other  words,  the  sun  never  sets  on  the  British 
Reclamation  program. 

The  first  and  most  spectacular  Department  in  the 
General  Organisation  deals  with  Collection  and 
Field  Sorting.  This  is  the  unit  that  hovers  on  the 
fringe  of  battle  and  gets  on  the  job  before  the 
smoke  lifts  from  the  hard-fought  fields.  Its  func- 
tion, therefore,  is  Battle  Salvage.     In  order  to  un- 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         175 

derstand  the  whole  Reclamation  process  it  might 
be  well  to  explain  here  that  there  are  two  separate 
and  distinct  kinds  of  salvage.  One  is  Battle  Sal- 
vage, which  deals  with  the  debris  of  actual  fighting 
and  includes  all  trench  materials  such  as  wood  and 
iron,  shell-cases,  guns,  rifles,  equipment,  clothing, 
tools  and  other  stores  that  have  been  damaged  in 
actual  fighting.  The  other  is  the  so-called  Normal 
Salvage,  which  is  material  such  as  empty  packing 
cases,  gasolene  cans  and  other  articles  which  never 
reach  the  battlefield. 

As  you  examine  this  Salvage  System  you  find  it 
reverses  the  procedure  of  Supply  and  Transport. 
With  Food  and  Motor  Trucks,  for  example,  you 
begin  at  the  Point  of  Production  and  follow  the 
commodity  straight  to  the  front,  where  it  is  de- 
stroyed or  consumed.  With  Salvage,  on  the  other 
hand,  you  begin  with  destruction  or  damage  and 
retrace  your  steps  to  restoration. 

All  Advanced  Salvage  Depots  (here  again  you 
find  the  parallel  with  the  Supply  and  Transport  Or- 
ganisation) have  a  double  function.  The  undam- 
aged equipment  is  cleaned  on  the  spot  and  returned 
immediately  to  the  Issue  Stores.  The  damaged 
goods  is  sent  back  to  the  Base  Depots  for  renewal. 
This  comprises  what  might  be  called  the  Field  Sal- 
vage Organisation. 

The  next  Department  deals  with  Second  Sorting. 
A  damaged  belt  or  haversack  easily  repairable  might 
be  discarded  as  useless  in  the  routine  at  the  Ad- 


176  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

vanced  Base  and  thrown  into  the  junk  heap.  In 
order  to  put  a  check  on  carelessness  the  stuff  is  sub- 
mitted to  a  second  inspection.  If  there  is  the 
slightest  chance  to  save  it  it  goes  to  a  Home  Repair 
Shop  located  in  England,  where  if  classed  as  abso- 
lutely hopeless  it  lands  among  the  "scrap"  and  is 
distributed  by  the  Controller  who  deals  with  raw 
materials.  You  can  see  from  the  work  of  this  De- 
partment that  the  Salvage  Organisation  lets  no  pos- 
sible piece  of  salvagable  material  escape. 

The  work  of  the  Third  Section  is  concerned  with 
Transport,  Classification  and  Distribution  of  arti- 
cles to  be  repaired  and  of  the  "scrap,"  metal  and 
materials.  It  sees  that  all  the  goods  to  be  salvaged 
lands  in  England  and  is  distributed  to  the  proper 
factories  and  Depots.  It  is  in  constant  communica- 
tion with  the  War  Office  as  to  its  needs  and  as  to 
available  ports  because  all  army  shipping  is  con- 
stantly up  against  the  eternal  problem  of  tonnage. 

Here,  however,  there  is  not  the  usual  hectic  scram- 
ble for  cargo  space  because  the  Quartermaster  Gen- 
eral's ships  which  go  over  laden  with  food  and  ord- 
nance stores  are  employed  to  bring  the  salvage  ma- 
terial back  to  England.  There  are  no  empty  hauls. 
The  task,  therefore,  is  to  fit  the  returning  ship  to 
the  port  nearest  the  reclamation  depot  to  be  used. 
Here  is  the  way  it  works: 

The  Deputy  Director  of  Salvage  in  charge  of  the 
Third  Section  is  informed  by  wire  from  France, 
for  example,  that  fifty  eighteen-pounders  are  to  be 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         177 

salvaged  and  await  shipment.  He  immediately  gets 
in  touch  with  the  Master  General  of  Ordnance,  who 
naturally  asks  if  they  are  worth  repairing.  If  he  is 
told  that  they  are  he  then  consults  the  State  of 
Work  at  Ordnance  Depots.  He  may  find  that  he 
can  squeeze  the  guns  into  Woolwich  Arsenal  and 
therefore  instructs  the  Deputy  Director  of  Salvage 
to  have  them  shipped  there. 

The  next  phase  in  the  organisatign  is  the  all- 
important  wing  which  deals  with  Statistics,  Over- 
head Cost  and  Accounting.  A  complete  set  of 
books  is  kept  on  every  group  of  items  salvaged.  It 
must  yield  a  profit  in  renewal  or  it  is  sold  as  junk 
or  employed  as  raw  material.  The  word  profit  in 
connection  with  salvage  has  a  more  or  less  elastic 
definition.  It  may  mean  an  actual  money  margin 
or  its  equivalent  in  time  or  labour  saved  in  getting 
the  article  fresh  from  a  factory. 

When  you  reach  the  Fifth  and  final  sub-pyramid 
in  the  Salvage  Organisation  you  are  in  contact  with 
one  of  the  most  significant  of  all  its  ramified  activi- 
ties for  here  you  reach  the  Plans  for  Demobilisa- 
tion. You  find  outlined  on  paper  the  stages  by 
which  the  enormous  armament  of  war  will  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  uses  of  peace  in  the  shortest  and  most 
efficient  fashion.  To  look  at  only  one  angle,  when 
the  war  ends  England  will  find  herself  owning  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  cannon,  large  and  small,  and 
many  millions  of  rifles.  How  to  convert  all  this 
metal  into  plough  shares  will  be  the  great  problem. 


178  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

Much  of  this  procedure  is  secret,  of  course.  For 
one  thing,  however,  it  is  planned  to  utiHse  the  re- 
turning armies  to  bring  this  immense  mass  of  ma- 
terial home  with  them. 

The  reason  is  obvious.  Just  as  soon  as  peace 
comes  the  average  British  Tommy  is  likely  to  throw 
away  his  gun  and  say  to  himself :  "This  war  is  over. 
The  devil  take  the  equipment.  I  am  going  to  beat 
it  back  to  'Blighty.'  "  Blighty,  as  most  people  know, 
is  the  soldier's  slang  phrase  for  England. 

The  big  meaning  of  this  Demobilisation  Salvage 
plan  is  that  salvage  will  not  end  with  war.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  it  will  just  begin.  It  is  a  hint  of  that 
mighty  conservation  of  all  resources  which  will 
make  Great  Britain  a  new  world  Industrial  Power, 

Having  seen  the  outline  of  the  Salvage  System 
you  can  now  go  into  the  field  and  watch  it  at  work. 
No  branch  of  it  is  more  imposing  than  the  Paris 
Ordnance  Depot.  Here  you  get  a  very  striking  illus- 
tration of  the  growth  of  Salvage  as  well  as  some 
idea  of  the  immense  financial  profit  that  accrues 
to  the  British  Government. 

This  Depot  began  as  a  "Dump"  for  mud  and 
blood-spattered  overcoats,  riding  breeches,  blankets 
and  kilts.  To-day  it  reclaims  millions  of  articles  of 
wearing  apparel  and  ecjuipment  every  year,  is  or- 
ganised like  a  huge  business  and  saves  John  Bull 
a  sum  greater  than  the  net  profits  of  a  full-fledged 
American  Trust. 

I  went  to  this  Depot  one  day  last  autumn.    Be- 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         179 

fore  I  passed  through  its  carefully  guarded  gates 
the  whirr  of  hundreds  of  sewing  machines  smote 
my  ear.  The  place  literally  hummed  with  industry. 
Freight  cars  were  being  shunted  back  and  forth  in 
the  yards.  Army  trucks  loaded  with  clothing  rattled 
in  and  out.  When  the  luncheon  whistle  blew  thou- 
sands of  women  streamed  forth  to  get  their  de- 
jeuner. I  could  not  help  realising  that  this  com- 
pletely equipped  establishment,  vibrating  with  ener- 
gy grew  out  of  a  pile  of  battle  salvage  and  dealt 
with  the  by-products  of  war. 

The  Paris  Depot — and  it  is  typical  in  organisation 
of  all  the  other  large  salvage  stations — is  in  charge 
of  a  once  retired  colonel,  a  "dugout"  as  they  are 
called,  who  has  come  back  into  the  service  like 
thousands  of  his  comrades.  Too  old  to  fight,  he 
is  doing  his  bit  amid  the  din  and  dust  of  the  Waste 
of  War.  Having  encountered  the  stench  of  more 
than  one  Reclamation  Depot  I  can  truthfully  attest 
to  the  fact  that  it  requires  more  courage,  certainly  a 
stronger  staying  power,  to  work  there  than  to  go 
"over  the  top." 

All  the  articles  to  be  salvaged  are  sent  in  special 
trains  straight  from  the  Base  Depots  behind  the 
lines  to  the  Paris  Depot.  There  are  two  stages  of 
sorting.  The  stuff  is  first  dumped  into  huge  open 
sheds,  where  a  motley  assortment  of  French  women 
do  the  overhauling.  Practically  all  the  labour  is 
recruited  from  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the 
Depot.      It   includes   the    wives,    sisters,    mothers, 


i8o  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

grandmothers  and  sometimes  great-grandmothers 
(  for  the  French  woman's  labours  only  end  with  the 
grave)  of  soldiers.  The  scene  in  one  of  these  great 
sorting  houses  is  as  amusing  as  it  is  stuffy.  You 
can  see  a  wrinkled  French  woman  with  her  head 
done  up  in  a  shawl  and  wearing  the  tunic  of  a  ser- 
geant in  the  Royal  Medical  Corps.  The  old  lady 
is  usually  very  proud  of  the  Red  Cross  on  her  sleeve. 
Another  ancient  dame  is  swathed  in  the  folds  of  an 
army  overcoat,  still  spattered  with  the  mud  of  Flan- 
ders, while  the  third  may  be  seen  attired  in  the 
closely  buttoned-up  coat  of  a  member  of  the  Royal 
Flying  Corps,  which  she  has  exhumed  from  some 
foul-smelling  heap  of  soiled  uniforms. 

These  women  throw  the  repairable  articles  into 
portable  bins,  which  are  trundled  off  to  the  clean- 
ing rooms  whence  they  go  to  the  various  Reclama- 
tion Divisions.  As  I  have  already  intimated,  the 
articles  come  straight  from  the  battlefields  and  like 
the  wreckage  in  a  Mechanical  Transport  Casualty 
Park,  are  eloquent,  if  odorous  evidence  of  the  life 
and  death  struggle  in  which  they  have  figured.  Most 
tragic  of  all  the  exhibits  are  the  tunics  with  the 
tell-tale  and  scorched  bullet  holes  through  which 
the  messengers  of  death  have  sped  so  unerringly. 

Every  article  has  a  separate  department  in  charge 
of  a  subordinate  officer  who  has  an  adequate  staff. 
The  Paris  Depot  is  unique  in  the  fact  that  it  is  the 
one  salvage  place  where  every  square  inch  of  ma- 
terial that  comes  in  is  reclaimed  or  used  in  some 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         i8i 

way.  The  only  thing  not  salvaged  are  the  body 
vermin,  which  are  slaughtered,  I  speak  of  vermin 
(no  well-regulated  Salvage  Station  is  complete 
without  them)  because  the  Paris  Depot  specialises 
in  kilts  which  are  the  favorite  stamping  ground  for 
the  little  travellers.  This  is  in  no  sense  a  commen- 
tary on  the  Scotch,  who  regard  cleanliness  as  the 
next  best  thing  to  their  proverbial  godliness,  but 
because  the  many  folds  in  a  kilt  provide  a  safe  and 
snug  retreat  for  the  pests. 

Aside  from  the  war  on  vermin — they  are  st.eamed 
out — the  whole  kilt  renovation  is  a  picturesque  per- 
formance. Every  Scotch  regiment  has  its  own  par- 
ticular tartan,  which  has  some  distinguishing  stripe, 
check  or  color  arrangement.  After  the  skirt  is  over- 
hauled it  is  sorted  out  by  plaids.  The  sergeant  in 
charge — a  battle-scarred  veteran  of  the  Argyll  and 
Sutherland  Highlanders — knows  every  one  of  the 
many  Scotch  tartans  and  piles  them  up  by  regiment 
as  they  come  in. 

To  get  down  to  practical  facts,  a  new  kilt  costs 
on  an  average  of  $5.50.  It  is  repaired,  renewed 
and  sent  back  as  good  as  new  for  exactly  fifty  cents. 
When  a  kilt  is  not  redeemable  it  is  cut  up  in  pieces 
and  used  to  line  overcoats. 

No  feature  of  work  at  the  Paris  Depot  is  more 
animated  than  the  reclamation  of  fur  and  sheep- 
skin coats  and  leather  jerkins  worn  by  the  motor 
transport  chauffeurs.  During  the  first  winter  of 
the  war  thousands  of  these  sheep-skin  coats  were 


i82  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

used.  They  soiled  so  easily  and  became  infected 
with  so  much  vermin  that  the  leather  jerkin  was 
substituted  and  has  been  found  to  be  much  more 
practical  and  sanitary.  These  coats  and  jerkins 
are  placed  in  huge  wooden  drums,  in  which  sawdust 
is  thrown  generously.  The  drums  are  rolled  by 
machinery  and  the  dirt  and  other  impurities  liter- 
ally dashed  out  of  the  garments.  It  mixes  with 
the  sawdust  and  is  removed  with  it.  The  sawdust  is 
then  used  for  fuel.  Five  thousand  of  these  garments 
can  be  cleaned  every  day.  The  number  of  leather 
jerkins  cleaned  during  six  months  last  year  was 
exactly  298,612,  which  represented  a  saving  in 
money  to  the  British  Government  of  over  $500,000. 
Since  the  depot  was  established  700,000  jerkins  and 
300,000  sheep-skin  coats  have  been  cleaned  and  re- 
stored. I  might  add  that  the  renovated  jerkin  and 
fur  coat  is  much  sought  after  by  the  British  Tommy 
because  it  is  softer  and  more  wearable  than  a  new 
garment. 

Overcoats,  or  great  coats  as  the  British  call  them, 
are  a  big  item  at  the  Paris  Depot.  During  the  six 
months  preceding  my  visit  exactly  304,193  had 
been  redeemed.  If  the  government  had  been  com- 
pelled to  buy  these  at  first  hand  and  at  the  Army 
Vocabulary  or  Catalogue  price  they  would  have 
cost  $2,375,000.  These  coats,  turned  back  to  the 
army  at  one-half  this  price,  represented  a  net  money 
saving  therefore  of  over  $1,000,000,  with  all  over- 
head cost  deducted. 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         183 

When  an  overcoat  is  beyond  repair  for  a  soldier 
it  is  stained  grey  or  black  and  served  out  to  the 
Chinese,  East  Indian  or  Egyptian  Labour  Battal- 
ions, or  to  the  Prisoners  of  War. 

At  this  Depot  I  saw  a  pile  of  German  top  coats 
captured  during  a  big  advance  and  which  were  be- 
ing salvaged.  Eventually  they  will  cover  the  backs 
of  Hun  prisoners,  who  will  get  the  surprise  of  their 
lives  when  perhaps  their  own  garments  will  be  issued 
to  them  by  their  foes.    Such  is  the  irony  of  war ! 

The  retrieving  of  clothes  (the  so-called  service 
dress  which  includes  jackets,  trousers  and  riding 
breeches)  opens  up  a  fresh  vista  of  well  organised 
salvage.  All  garments  are  divided  into  three  classes. 
The  first,  which  is  designated  A,  is  for  garments 
of  the  first  class;  that  is,  uniforms  that  can  be  worn 
by  soldiers  in  training  or  behind  the  lines.  The 
second  class,  catalogued  as  B,  includes  garments 
not  so  desirable,  which  are  to  be  used  by  men  in  the 
trenches,  while  the  third  class,  C,  comprises  the 
work  clothes  for  men  engaged  in  building  roads  or 
in  any  one  of  the  numerous  manual  labour  jobs 
in  field  or  camp. 

The  supervision  of  this  work  requires  skill  of  a 
very  high  order.  In  charge  of.  the  whole  job  is  a 
Scotch  civilian  who  in  civil  life  was  head  of  a  huge 
clothing  establishment  in  London.  Under  him  is  a 
corps  of  trained  French  forewomen  who  classify  the 
garments.     With  very  deft  fingers  they  stitch  the 


i84  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

class  labels  on  the  garments  as  they  come  by  for 
inspection. 

In  this  clothing  department  literally  thousands  of 
needles  fly  every  day.  The  women  are  paid  by 
piece  work  and,  being  French  and  therefore  thrifty, 
they  are  in  a  constant  contest  with  time.  In  order 
to  speed  each  other  up  these  models  of  industry 
work  in  friendly  but  highly  profitable  rivalry.  The 
woman  with  the  fattest  time-check  for  the  week 
is  indeed  the  envy  of  all  her  co-workers. 

The  clothing  output  is  in  keeping  with  the  pro- 
duction of  the  other  departments.  The  average 
number  of  tunics  or  jackets  overhauled  during  a 
six  months'  period  has  been  approximately  202,000. 
If  John  Bull  had  bought  these  in  the  open  market 
at  the  regulation  Vocabulary  price  they  would  have 
cost  him  exactly  $729,000.  By  turning  them  over 
to  the  Government  on  a  basis  of  half  this  price  the 
saving  is  therefore  $364,500.  With  riding  breeches 
and  trousers  the  saving  is  correspondingly  large. 

Another  huge  item  of  salvage  relates  to  blankets 
of  all  kinds.  During  the  six  months  ending  last 
December  1,555,803  blankets  of  all  kinds  were  sal- 
vaged. Originally  they  represented  a  cost  to  the 
army  of  $3,889,505.  Turned  in  to  the  Government 
on  usual  half  price  schedule  they  showed  a  saving 
of  $1,944,252.  Horse  blankets  at  the  rate  of  160,- 
000  every  six  months  and  representing  a  saving  of 
over  $300,000  during  that  period  alone  are  merely 
an  incidental  in  the  Blanket  Department.    Every 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         185 

year  for  the  past  two  years  the  Paris  Depot  has  sal- 
vaged an  average  of  20,000  pairs  of  gloves,  60,000 
cardigans,  130,000  pairs  of  woollen  drawers,  120,- 
000  skirts,  41,000  towels  and  200,000  woollen  un- 
dervests. 

A  complete  "follow-up"  system  is  in  operation 
in  every  department.  What  is  called  a  "Work-room 
Progress  Return  for  the  Week"  is  issued  every 
Thursday  morning.  On  this  sheet  you  can  see  the 
number  of  garments  despatched,  the  wages  paid  and 
the  exact  cost  per  garment  of  every  item  salvaged. 
You  find  out,  for  instance,  that  the  exact  cost  per 
garment  of  salvaging  140,000  pairs  of  pantaloons 
was  ninety-seven  centimes,  or  about  twenty  cents. 
On  the  same  sheet  I  observed  that  the  cost  per 
garment  in  wages  of  salvaging  8,629  kilts  was  297 
centimes,  or  about  sixty  cents.  So  it  went.  The 
total  of  garments  of  all  kinds  handled  was  805,312, 
while  the  average  wages  bill  for  each  article  was 
about  75  centimes,  or  only  fifteen  cents. 

Now  take  a  final  look  at  the  books  of  the  Paris 
Depot  and  you  discover  that  after  deducting  all  ex- 
penses, including  civilian  labour,  cost  of  material, 
coal  transport,  rent,  machinery,  and  wear  and  tear 
the  profits  for  six  months  ending  December  31, 
1916,  were  $5,232,540.  This  average  was  more 
than  sustained  during  19 17,  when  the  total  esti- 
mated saving  for  the  year  was  about  $12,000,000. 
One  unromantic  but  useful  item  on  the  income  side 
of  this  Salvage  Ledger  is  rags.    Every  six  months 


i86  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

this  Depot  sells  not  less  than  500  tons  at  $250  a  ton. 

Aside  from  this  huge  saving  in  actual  money  the 
reclamation  at  the  Paris  Ordnance  Depot — before 
the  Government  established  its  Wool  Control — had 
a  very  decided  effect  on  keeping  down  the  price  of 
wool.  If  the  British  Government  had  been  required 
to  go  into  the  open  market  and  buy  the  millions 
of  woollen  garments  represented  by  the  number  sal- 
vaged there  would  have  been  a  very  appreciable  in- 
crease in  the  price  of  the  raw  material. 

In  Paris  you  can  also  see  the  Rubber  Salvage 
Factory.  This  is  run  entirely  on  its  own,  that  is, 
separate  and  distinct  from  the  Ordnance  Depot  that 
I  have  just  described.  This  plant  has  a  peculiar 
significance  because  rubber  these  days  is  almost  as 
valuable  as  gold  and  every  ounce  of  it  is  carefully 
conserved.  The  chief  items  salvaged  are  thigh  boots 
used  in  the  trenches,  capes,  coats  and  ground  sheets 
upon  which  the  soldiers  sleep. 

The  usual  story  of  economy  is  repeated  here.  A 
pair  of  rubber  boots  that  at  wholesale  cost  $10  in 
London  is  redeemed  here  for  sixty  cents;  a  sal- 
vaged cape  that  cost  $5.00  is  turned  out  as  good  as 
new  for  fourteen  cents.  You  get  a  hint  of  the  real 
saving  effected  in  rubber  when  I  tell  you  that  be- 
fore the  Paris  Rubber  Factory  was  started  the 
British  Government  got  a  bid  from  French  Con- 
tractors to  restore  thigh  boots  at  $8.00  a  pair !  This 
was  the  lowest  bid  sent  in. 

Last  year  this  Depot  salvaged  450,000  rubber 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         187 

boots  alone.  It  is  in  charge  of  a  temporary  officer 
who  took  a  three  months'  course  of  instruction  in 
one  of  the  largest  rubber  factories  in  England  and 
who  later  established  a  school  of  instruction  for 
the  hundreds  of  women  employed. 

After  clothing  the  item  of  personal  wear  that 
represents  the  largest  amount  of  salvage  is  shoes. 
The  British  Government  not  only  makes  it  shoes — 
since  the  outbreak  of  the  war  24,500,000  pairs  have 
been  issued — but  it  has  gone  into  sole-saving  on  a 
tremendous  scale.  The  shoe  salvage  which  began 
very  modestly  at  a  northern  French  port  has  grown 
to  such  an  extent  that  the  original  plant  now  has  a 
huge  branch  in  the  east  of  London. 

Both  of  these  plants  have  the  same  system  of 
operation.  The  French  establishment,  however,  has 
elements  of  distinct  human  interest.  It  employs 
more  than  a  thousand  French  and  Belgian  girls  who 
sing  as  they  work  despite  the  ungodly  smell  that 
comes  from  the  battered  footgear,  plastered  as  it  is 
with  the  mud  of  road  and  trench  and  sometimes 
filled  with  rotten  straw  or  the  old  socks  which  the 
weary  marcher  has  stuffed  in  to  ease  his  aching 
feet. 

All  shoes  in  the  army  arrive  at  the  Salvage 
Depots  in  sacks.  When  you  see  the  contents  dumped 
out  you  ask :  "Is  it  humanly  possible  to  repair  this 
foul  mass  of  tattered  leather?  But  it  is — and  in 
amazing  fashion. 

To  begin  with,  the  susceptibilities  of  the  average 


i88  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

French  woman  who  works  with  her  hands  are  not 
quite  so  sensitive  as  yours.  She  not  only  sees  sal- 
vation for  a  great  many  of  the  soiled  shoes  but  a 
highly  satisfactory  rate  of  compensation  for  her- 
self in  the  salvaging.  These  sorters  have  nimble 
fingers  and  keen  eyes.  In  a  second  they  decide  what 
shoes  are  fit  for  service  again  and  which  ones — 
usually  those  with  bad  uppers — must  be  "scrapped." 
If  one  shoe  of  a  pair  is  unfit  for  further  use  the 
other  is  salvaged  and,  since  the  sizes  are  standard- 
ised, it  is  linked  up  with  another  odd  one  and  the 
two  go  on  their  way  of  service. 

Shoe  reclamation,  as  you  may  well  imagine,  is 
not  fragrant.  But  the  French  women  and  their 
sisters  in  the  London  factory,  buck  up  to  the  job 
with  great  fortitude.  It  is  all  part  of  the  day's 
work. 

The  shoes  go  through  a  systematic  process  of 
overhauling.  One  group  of  women  clean  the  rough 
mud  from  the  outside,  clear  out  all  the  foreign  mat- 
ter inside  and  plunge  them  into  great  tanks  of  hot 
water  mixed  with  carbolic  acid.  Following  this 
bath  they  are  scrubbed  thoroughly,  after  which  they 
are  dried  out  on  racks  and  coated  with  warm  castor 
oil.  They  then  pass  to  a  group  of  amazons  chosen 
for  their  physical  strength,  who  put  the  boots  on 
iron  lasts  and  tear  off  the  old  soles  and  heels.  The 
shoes  are  now  sorted  out  into  sizes  by  pairs,  enter 
the  domain  of  another  group  who  tack  on  tempo- 
rarily the  correct  sized  sole  before  it  is  permanently 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         189 

nailed  on  by  machine.  The  heel-tipping,  toe-plating 
and  hob-nailing — these  army  shoes  must  be  like  iron 
— are  done  by  hand. 

Every  shoe  salvaged  is  blocked  for  several  hours 
so  as  to  guarantee  the  exact  size.  After  these  blocks 
or  lasts  are  removed  the  heels  are  inked,  the  size  is 
stamped  on  the  sole,  the  boot  is  again  oiled  and 
goes  into  the  Store  ready  to  be  requisitioned.  Like 
the  leather  jerkins  salvaged  in  Paris,  these  repaired 
shoes  are  more  popular  with  the  soldiers  than  new- 
ones  for  the  simple  reason  that  they  are  broken  in 
for  wear  and  never  pinch  the  feet. 

So  much  for  the  uppers  that  can  stand  new  soles 
and  heels.  What  becomes  of  the  uppers  that  are- 
frayed  and  torn?  Once  more  Scotch  thrift  has 
come  to  the  fore  and  saved  the  day.  When  the 
French  shoe  salvage  shop  was  first  inaugurated  all 
the  damaged  uppers  were  "scrapped."  One  day  a 
young  Aberdeen  sergeant,  wounded  at  Mons,  and 
who  was  still  standing  by  the  colors  by  acting  as 
foreman  in  the  shoe  shop,  decided  that  these  uppers 
should  be  saved.  Almost  on  the  spot  he  invented 
a  machine  which  converts  the  unrepairable  uppers 
into  shoe  strings.  It  is  a  circular  knife  operated  at 
high  speed.  With  great  dexterity  the  French  girls 
hold  the  upper  in  front  of  the  knife  and  pull  out 
the  lace  by  the  rear. 

All  told  more  than  a  million  pairs  of  shoes  were 
salvaged  in  19 16,  while  the  record  for  last  year 
was  considerably  over  this  number.     At  the  pres- 


I90  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

ent  high  price  of  leather  the  saving  runs  into  mil- 
lions of  dollars. 

No  detail  of  British  Army  Salvage  is  quite  so 
striking  in  its  human  aspect  as  the  retrieving  of 
automobile  spare  parts.  To  observe  this  we  will 
go  back  to  the  Empire  of  Mechanical  Transport 
and  establish  ourselves  at  one  of  its  largest  Base 
Depots.  Here,  in  an  immense  new  concrete  fac- 
tory, which  represents  the  last  word  in  time  and 
labour  saving  construction,  you  will  see  one  of  the 
strangest  sights  of  the  war.  It  is  nothing  more  or 
less  than  twelve  hundred  German  prisoners,  still 
clad  in  their  fatigue  uniforms,  working  at  tool, 
lathe  and  bench  and  under  the  foremanship  of  Brit- 
ish sergeant  majors  who  were  skilled  mechanics 
before  the  war. 

The  German  prisoners  represent  the  combing  out 
of  the  many  thousands  of  Huns  now  in  British 
hands.  When  it  was  decided  to  salvage  damaged 
automobile  parts  there  arose  at  once  that  most  per- 
sistent of  all  war  questions — where  is  the  skilled 
labour  to  come  from?  Back  in  England  every 
available  and  able  bodied  mechanic  was  geared  up 
to  munition  making  or  some  other  essential  war 
industry.  A  long-headed  subordinate  under  the 
Director  of  Transport  solved  the  problem  by  sug- 
gesting that  artisan  German  prisoners  be  used. 
Every  batch  contained  at  least  a  few  competent 
workers.  He  argued  that  they  could  earn  their 
board  and  lodging  at  a  lathe  much  better  and  ren- 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         191 

der  a  larger  service  to  their  keepers  than  by  build- 
ing roads  or  carrying  sacks  of  oats  at  the  Supply 
Depots. 

The  net  result  was  that  every  Prisoner  of  War 
Company  underwent  a  strict  investigation.  It  was 
an  easy  task.  These  Companies  are  all  in  charge 
of  their  own  non-commissioned  officers,  who,  with 
characteristic  German  efficiency,  keep  complete 
records  of  their  men  and  their  pre-war  occupa- 
tions. These  N.  C.  O.'s  were  asked  to  choose  the 
most  skilled  of  their  colleagues. 

When  the  factory  was  completed  twelve  hundred 
operatives  were  ready  and  more  than  willing  to  go 
to  work.  The  big,  warm,  well-lighted  and  perfect- 
ly ventilated  plant  was  like  heaven  after  the  cold 
roads,  dirty  ships  and  draughty  warehouses  in 
which  many  of  them  had  toiled  since  their  capture. 
These  prisoners  proved  to  be  so  capable  and  so  in- 
dustrious that  the  British  Government  now  gives 
them  a  money  allowance  of  three  francs  a  day. 
This  wage  is  paid  in  a  special  money  printed  for 
this  purpose.  It  is  legal  tender  at  the  Army  Can- 
teens, where  the  Boche  prisoners  can  buy  ciga- 
rettes, jam,  beer  and  their  dearly  beloved  sausage. 
Whether  it  is  due  to  the  extra  money  or  the  com- 
fort in  which  they  work,  one  thing  is  certain — the 
German  prisoners  on  the  salvage  task  have  made 
good.  Most  of  them  are  wise  enough  to  realise 
that,  following  this  unique  experience,  they  will  not 


192  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

only  be  alive  but  much  more  efficient  when  the  war 
ends. 

At  this  German-run  Shop  $25,000  worth  of  spare 
parts  are  salvaged  every  week.  When  you  con- 
sider the  immense  need  of  automobile  and  truck 
spares,  the  great  difficulty  in  securing  them  and  the 
scarcity  of  steel  you  can  understand  how  essential 
this  branch  of  reclamation  becomes. 

There  are  three  alternatives  in  Mechanical  Trans- 
port retrieving.  The  first  is  to  repair  the  article 
as,  for  example,  a  magneto,  and  restore  it  to  its 
original  form.  The  second  is  to  melt  down  the 
metal  and  use  it  for  raw  material.  The  third  is  to 
"scrap"  it.  All  "scrap"  from  the  Mechanical  Trans- 
port goes  to  the  Ministry  of  Munitions.  These 
same  rules  apply  to  the  salvaging  of  aeroplane  en- 
gine parts. 

More  than  3,000  separate  motor  vehicle  parts  are 
repaired  and  issued  for  immediate  use  each  week. 
They  include  complete  engines,  radiators,  ball  bear- 
ings, axles  and  wheels,  accessories  and  fittings  like 
lamps,  batteries,  wind  screens,  magnetos,  inner 
tubes,  spark  plugs  and  speedometers.  Altogether 
50,000  spark  plugs  and  2,000  magnetos  have  been 
reclaimed  since  the  work  began.  The  total  value 
of  all  the  salvaged  parts  is  more  than  $2,500,000. 

When  a  part  is  beyond  repair  the  material  of 
which  it  is  composed  is  frequently  used  for  the 
reproduction  of  that  "spare"  or  for  the  repair  of 
some  other.     Destroyed  radiators  are  melted  down 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         193 

to  make  new  ones;  burnt-out  truck  valves  are  ma- 
chined into  car  valves ;  worn  brass  bushes  are  recast 
and  made  into  new  ones.  About  fifteen  hundred 
such  parts  are  made  and  remade  every  week.  Abso- 
lutely nothing  is  permitted  to  go  to  waste.  Even 
the  solder  baths  used  in  the 'repair  work  come  from 
the  scrap  heap. 

Like  nearly  every  other  important  war  activity 
the  Reclamation  of  Automobile  spare  parts  is  doing 
its  bit  in  the  permanent  uplift  of  Industry.  Its 
prize  contribution  is  a  new  system  of  renewing  iron 
or  steel  parts.  For  the  want  of  something  better 
this  process  is  called  Electric  Steel  Deposition.  Any 
metal  part  that  needs  building  up  can  be  restored 
to  its  original  form  by  this  ingenious  device,  which 
applies  the  new  skin  electrically.  It  is  really  a  bath, 
resembles  electro-plating  in  operation  and  was  in- 
vented by  one  of  the  temporary  oi^cers  stationed  at 
the  factory. 

The  next  chapter  in  the  story  of  War  Salvage 
takes  us  across  the  Channel  to  an  ancient  Citadel 
of  British  Ordnance,  long  the  centre  of  treasured 
military  traditions.  Here  you  see  an  entirely  differ- 
ent class  of  work. 

It  deals,  for  one  thing,  with  web  and  canvas 
equipment.  This  includes  packs,  haversacks  and 
cartridge  belts.  Originally  all  these  articles  were 
made  of  leather,  but  as  the  demands  of  war  grew 
at  such  tremendous  pace  the  web  stuff  was  substi- 


194  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

tuted  for  the  hide  and  is  proving  to  be  just  as 
efficient  and  much  more  easily  salvaged. 

At  this  arsenal  John  Bull's  War  Laundry  goes 
at  full  swing.  All  the  v^eb  and  canvas  equipment 
is  washed  in  huge  tubs  and  darned  with  machinery. 
It  is  restored  to  the  men  as  good  as  new. 

But  it  is  with  leather  equipment  that  the  real 
miracle  is  wrought.  Hundreds  of  saddles  come  in 
from  the  front  every  week.  Many  of  them  are  shot 
full  of  holes  and  nearly  all  have  the  mud  of  the 
French  roads  still  clinging  to  them.  A  new  officer's 
saddle  represents  an  outlay  of  from  $50  to  $100.  In 
this  process  of  salvage  it  can  be  remade  for  several 
dollars. 

So,  too,  with  the  leather  trench  tool  carriers, 
which  represent  a  very  considerable  item  of  ex- 
pense. This  procedure  discloses  one  of  the  many 
illustrations  of  war  utility.  In  the  old  days  before 
this  war  when  no  one  thought  of  husbanding  raw 
material  the  British  troops  that  went  to  India  and 
Egypt  used  huge  leather  bags  to  contain  the  spare 
bedding.  They  represented  acres  of  hides.  All 
these  now  unnecessary  bags  have  been  called  in 
and  converted  into  containers  for  trench  tools. 

One  significant  adjunct  of  the  leather  restoration 
is  a  School  for  Saddlers,  which  is  operated  in  con- 
nection with  the  salvage  work.  Here  the  men  are 
trained  to  do  repair  work  in  the  field.  They  get  a 
complete  course  of  instruction  under  experienced 
saddlers.    In  the  work  shop  you  see  dummy  horses 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         195 

equipped  with  every  kind  of  leather  kit  used  in  the 
army.  Every  man  must  serve  his  time  in  the 
leather  salvage  department,  which  gives  him  prac- 
tical experience.  When  he  goes  to  France  or  one 
of  the  other  theatres  of  war  he  can  tackle  any  sort 
of  leather  repair  job. 

No  evidence  of  the  completness  of  the  army 
thrift  crusade  is  more  striking  than  the  treatment 
of  carcass  cloths.  It  deals  with  the  large  pieces  of 
white  linen  used  to  cover  the  carcasses  of  beef  that 
come  from  South  America,  the  United  States  and 
Australia.  In  ordinary  times  and  in  ordinary  wars 
these  blood-stained  sheets  would  have  been  thrown 
away  as  worthless.  To-day  you  see  them  literally 
cooked  down  in  large  vats.  Their  long  contact  with 
the  beef  on  the  voyage  has  impregnated  them  with 
considerable  fat.  In  the  boiling  process  this  grease 
comes  to  the  surface,  is  skimmed  off  and  used  for 
what  is  called  "dubbing,"  an  excellent  leather  soft- 
ener. The  rags  themselves  are  cut  into  small  pieces 
and  employed  for  general  cleaning  purposes.  This 
operation  represents  salvage  raised  to  the  nth  de- 
gree.    It  is  like  splitting  hairs. 

No  less  drastic  is  the  treatment  to  which  the 
empty  flour  sacks  at  Army  Bakeries  are  subjected. 
Flour  always  clings  to  its  cloth  receptacle  and  it 
is  worth  reclaiming.  The  bags,  therefore,  are 
dropped  into  a  hopper,  which  revolves  at  great 
speed  and  extracts  every  particle  of  flour  from  the 
goods.     The  sacks  are  used  for  various  purpose? 


196  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

and  the  flour  goes  into  army  bread.  At  one  bak- 
ery in  France  the  saving  in  flour  which  would  other- 
wise have  been  lost  in  the  sack  is  not  less  than  $250 
a  week. 

While  we  are  on  the  subject  of  flour  I  am  re- 
minded of  still  another  unusual  piece  of  salvage. 
Nearly  all  the  ovens  at  one  of  the  largest  Base 
Bakeries  in  France,  in  which  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  loaves  of  bread  are  baked  every  day,  are  merely 
reclaimed  Travelling  Ovens  which  were  originally 
part  of  the  commissary  equipment  of  troops  in  the 
field.  On  account  of  the  rough  usage  they  usually 
show  signs  of  deterioration  in  the  outer  casing  after 
six  months  of  hard  service.  With  this  decay  comes 
a  decrease  in  bread  output  because  less  heat  is  re- 
tained. This  proved  to  be  a  serious  handicap  in 
the  feeding  of  troops.  It  was  almost  impossible 
to  make  adequate  repairs  and  scores  of  the  ovens 
had  to  be  "scrapped."  Since  each  one  cost  from 
$950  to  $1,000  the  loss  to  the  Public  Purse  was 
very  great. 

A  bright  young  man  in  the  Army  Service  Corps 
— once  more  the  ever-ready  and  useful  temporary 
officer — suggested  that  these  travelling  ovens  could 
be  bricked  in  and  made  into  ground  ovens.  Two 
ovens  were  accordingly  installed  in  this  way  and 
they  proved  to  be  so  successful  that  within  six 
months  practically  every  oven  at  the  Depot  I  am 
describing  was  built  out  of  abandoned  field  prop- 
erty. 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         197 

In  the  field  the  travelling  oven  bums  wood.  This 
proved  to  be  a  very  expensive  item  for  the  bakeries. 
Coke  was  substituted,  with  the  result  that  a  great 
saving  in  fuel  cost  was  effected.  As  a  matter  of 
exact  fact  the  saving  at  this  one  bakery  amounts 
to  $12,000  every  month  and  this  includes  the  cost 
of  transporting  the  fuel.  More  than  this  not  a 
single  travelling  oven  has  been  "scrapped"  since 
the  scheme  was  inaugurated.  To  cap  the  climax 
of  conservation  at  this  bakery  I  have  only  to  add 
that  it  is  built  on  reclaimed  ground. 

The  system  of  salvage  extends  everywhere.  Noth- 
ing is  immune.  Every  gasolene  can  is  used  and 
reused  until  it  is  dilapidated  and  then  the  tin  is 
sold.  The  wooden  packing  cases  are  employed 
until  they  fall  to  pieces  and  the  scraps  become 
kindling;  hospital  dressings  are  sterilised  and  sold 
as  cotton  waste;  small  motor  parts  are  sent  up  to 
the  front  in  empty  cigarette  and  tobacco  tins  set 
aside  for  the  purpose;  damaged  gas  helmets  are 
washed  in  warm  water  so  that  the  chemicals  used 
in  them  may  be  retrieved.  The  British  soldier  is 
taught  that  true  economy,  like  the  wealth  that  ac- 
cumulates from  pennies,  is  merely  the  sum  of  small 
things. 

The  same  minute  conservation  applies  to  battle 
salvage.  Wherever  you  go  in  the  zones  of  the 
armies  you  are  likely  to  see  unexploded  shells,  or 
"duds"  as  the  army  calls  them.  Before  economy 
got  its  grip  on  the  fighting  hosts  very  little  atten- 


I9S  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

tion  was  paid  to  them.  They  were  allowed  to  re- 
main in  the  fields  where  they  dropped.  Up  near  a 
battered  village  that  had  recently  been  captured  I 
saw  this  sign  in  the  midst  of  the  ruins : 

"Save  Shells.  They  are  for  Fritz — not  for 
Waste." 

In  a  French  town  taken  by  the  British  Forces 
last  summer  and  which  had  been  under  severe  bom- 
bardment for  a  long  time  these  signs  are  posted 
everywhere : 


PICK  UP  A  NAIL 
AND  SAVE  A   HORSE 


Under  these  signs  are  empty  biscuit  boxes  into 
which  the  men  throw  the  nails  that  litter  the  streets. 
One  reason  for  this  injunction,  aside  from  the  fact 
that  it  saves  actual  nails,  is  that  it  prevents  many 
an  army  horse  from  getting  them  in  his  hoofs  and 
going  lame. 

The  salvage  of  wood — and  more  especially  the 
timber  taken  out  of  captured  or  abandoned  German 
trenches — is  carried  on  on  a  very  large  scale.  Each 
army  has  a  miniature  saw  mill  as  part  of  its  equip- 
ment. One  British  Army  supplied  all  its  wood  needs 
for  six  months  out  of  the  supports  and  walls  ob- 
tained from  German  positions.     This  did  not  in- 


^riik. 


I 


THE  SALVAGE  OF  BATTLE         199 

elude  the  thousands  of  poplar  trees  wliich  had 
once  lined  the  roadsides  and  which  had  been 
slaughtered  by  the  retreating  Huns  with  character- 
istic wantonness. 


VIII — The  Army  Food  Drive 

THIS  panorama  of  reconstruction,  ranging 
from  redeemed  biscuit  cans  to  restored 
nine-inch  howitzers,  is  merely  the  approach 
to  the  most  significant  of  British  salvage  processes. 
For  now  we  come  to  Food  Economy,  to  the  con- 
servation of  the  one  commodity  which  more  than 
any  other,  and  not  even  excepting  guns  and  am- 
munition, will  help  to  turn  the  tide  of  conflict.  At 
a  time  when  the  food  question  is  looming  large  as 
a  crucial  war  factor  this  work  is  of  supreme  in- 
terest to  the  whole  American  people. 

The  greatest  army  waste  was  with  food  and,  by 
the  same  token,  food  is  now  the  basis  of  the  most 
remarkable  of  all  salvage  activities.  It  furnishes 
the  lesson  in  thrift  that  reaches  from  the  domain 
of  battling  armies  straight  into  every  man's  home. 
It  is  the  Universal  Theme. 

When  John  Jones,  the  average  citizen  anywhere, 
growls  about  the  high  cost  of  living  and  contem- 
plates the  hole  that  kitchen  extravagance  makes  in 
his  income  he  thinks  that  he  is  a  much-abused  per- 
son. He  is  struggling  with  a  problem  that  only 
affects  his  own  household — at  most  a  comparatively 
few  people.  Consider  then  the  proposition  that  con- 
fronted the  British  Government  with  thousands  of 
kitchens  and  millions  of  men  to  feed  and  you  real- 

200 


THE  ARMY  FOOD  DRIVE  201 

ise  the  enormous  dent  that  waste  in  cooking  and 
eating  made  in  the  national  pocketbook. 

Its  job  was  to  keep  the  new  and  growing  armies 
fed  regardless  of  consumption.  But  when  the  great 
machine  of  Supply  struck  its  stride  and  the  armies 
were  shaken  down,  one  of  the  first  things  that 
bobbed  up  for  investigation  and  possible  super- 
vision was  the  question  of  food  outlay.  Already 
the  menace  of  famine  brooded  over  the  horizon. 
The  submarine  danger  was  growing  each  day ;  food 
ships  were  going  down  every  week;  England  was 
in  the  grip  of  a  Food  Controller.  The  conserva- 
tion of  what  men  and  women  ate  became  a  matter 
of  vital  necessity. 

Of  course,  food  restriction  had  to  begin  with  tlie 
civilian.  The  last  person  where  it  could  possibly 
be  enforced  was  with  the  fighting  man.  Yet  no 
one  realised  more  than  the  Army  Chiefs  themselves 
that  the  wastage  among  the  troops  was  little  less 
than  criminal.     Something  had  to  be  done. 

It  followed,  therefore,  that  along  in  the  summer 
of  19 1 6  a  definite  movement  was  inaugurated  to 
conserve  and  control  army  food  consumption  but 
most  of  all  to  put  a  check  on  the  hideous  waste  that 
was  sacrificing  untold  tons  of  supplies  every  year. 
A  new  wing  of  the  Quartermaster  General's  De- 
partment was  set  up  and  dedicated  to  the  super- 
vision, maintenance  and  auditing  of  all  Mess  Ser- 
vices at  home  and  abroad.  It  was  technically  called 
The  Ouartermaster  General's  Inspection  Service. 


202  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

Before  this  new  department  had  been  in  opera- 
tion twelve  months  it  had  not  only  brought  about 
drastic  reforms  that  saved  millions  of  dollars,  but 
had  stimulated  industry,  stiffened  British  independ- 
ence in  one  very  essential  branch  of  munitions  mak- 
ing and  established  a  full-fledged  and  highly  profit- 
able business. 

Since  the  kitchen  was  the  root  of  the  food  wast-, 
age  evil  it  became  the  goal  of  a  great  offensive. 
First  of  all  the  army  cooks  were  put  under  the 
microscope  and  carefully  analysed.  Up  to  this  time 
most  of  them  had  been  drafted  from  civil  life.  The 
majority  were  incompetent.  They  looked  upon 
government  food  as  something  devised  for  waste. 
In  this  idea  they  were  aided  and  abetted  by  the 
soldiers  themselves,  who  frequently  threw  away 
more  of  their  rations  than  they  ate.  This  grand 
carnival  of  extravagance  at  government  expense 
was  doomed  to  a  speedy  finish. 

"If  we  are  going  to  censor  the  kitchen  we  must 
begin  with  the  cook,"  said  the  new  Watch  Dogs 
of  the  Messes. 

The  only  way  to  get  efficient  cooks  was  to  train 
them  so  Schools  of  Cookery  were  started  in  Eng- 
land and  Scotland.  They  are  in  charge  of  tempo- 
rary officers,  all  experienced  caterers  in  civil  life, 
who  are  called  Instructors  in  Catering.  These 
schools  proved  to  be  so  successful  in  the  United 
Kingdom  that  scores  were  established  along  the 


THE  ARMY  FOOD  DRIVE  203 

Lines  of  Communication  in  France  at  every  large 
Infantry  Base  Depot. 

The  course  of  instruction  lasts  for  four  weeks. 
For  fourteen  days  the  candidate  attends  daily  lec- 
tures on  every  phase  of  cooking,  from  cutting  up 
the  sides  of  beef  and  the  reception  of  uncooked  ma- 
terial generall}^  to  the  preparation  of  a  complete 
meal.  He  is  given  a  course  of  talks  on  diet;  he  is 
taught  to  build  improvised  ovens  out  of  empty  bis- 
cuit tins  or  scrap  sheets  of  iron  in  case  he  is  with  a 
unit  that  loses  its  baggage  train  on  the  march;  he 
is  shown  how  to  eliminate  waste  in  every  phase  of 
kitchen  work. 

After  two  weeks  he  is  put  on  the  job  of  cooking 
food  for  the  men  at  the  depot  to  which  his  school 
is  attached.  At  the  end  of  his  period  of  instruction 
he  is  required  to  pass  an  examination.  If  he  meets 
all  requirements  he  is  given  a  small  card  which  cer- 
tifies that  he  has  completed  the  course  in  the  School 
of  Cookery  and  it  becomes  his  pass-port  into  the 
zone  of  full-fledged  army  cooks.  Since  the  estab- 
lishment of  these  schools  42,^50  graduate  cooks 
have  been  turned  out.  They  are  the  Minute  Men 
of  Army  Food  Economy. 

The  thoroughness  of  the  cookery  course  is  evi- 
denced by  many  illuminating  documents.  Typical 
of  these  is  a  Manual  of  Military  Cooking  and 
Dietary  which  is  the  Cook  Book  of  the  army.  The 
rawest  cook  in  the  world  could  produce  something 
eatable   by    simply    following   its   instructions.     It 


204  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 


shows  how  every  article  of  food  used  in  the  army- 
can  be  used  to  the  best  advantage  and  made  to  do 
the  utmost  work  in  case  of  a  breakdown  in  food 
transport.  Since  troops  in  the  field  are  sometimes 
called  upon  to  impress  or  buy  cattle  for  their  sus- 
tenance there  is  a  chapter  on  the  killing,  skinning 
and  preparation  of  the  carcass.  This  section  even 
goes  to  the  extent  of  reproducing  pictures  of  cattle, 
sheep  and  pigs,  showing  their  various  edible  parts 
in  cross-section.  Even  with  the  Cook  Book  the 
British  Army  instruction  omits  no  detail. 

There  is  a  series  of  books  dealing  with  the  con- 
struction of  Army  Ovens.  The  cook  is  not  only 
taught  how  to  improvise  ovens  out  of  scraps,  but  to 
keep  his  kitchen  tools  in  good  repair. 

A  complete  words-of-one-syllable  culinary  liter- 
ature has  been  prepared  for  the  Army  Cook.  One 
of  these  books  is  called  The  Cookhouse  and  Simple 
Recipes.  It  is  packed  with  helpful  hints  on  how 
to  keep  the  Cookhouse  sanitary ;  how  to  build  fires ; 
how  to  cut  up  bread,  cheese  and  cake  with  the  least 
possible  waste;  how  to  make  the  most  of  every 
ration  (that  is,  make  sausages,  rissoles  and  other 
combinations  out  of  leavings)  and  how  to  manu- 
facture improvised  bread  slicers  and  potato  peelers. 
It  is  really  a  full  course  in  Domestic  Science. 

One  important  feature  of  the  book  deals  with  the 
soldiers'  diet  sheet.  Under  the  new  Army  Food 
Regulations  every  Master  Cook  is  required  to  make 
out  a  Weekly  Diet  Sheet  which  announces  the  com- 


THE  ARMY  FOOD  DRIVE  205 

plete  menu  for  the  men.  It  is  posted  conspicuously 
in  the  Cookhouse  and  Mess  Rooms  every  Sunday 
morning.  Its  chief  advantages  are  that  the  cooks 
know  what  to  prepare  from  day  to  day.  While 
the  men  know  what  they  are  going  to  have.  It 
facilitates  the  ration  indent,  tends  toward  economy 
and  helps  to  insure  a  variety  of  food. 

The  Instructors  in  Catering  are  very  important 
Army  individuals.  A  Flying  Squadron  is  constant- 
ly on  the  go  making  unexpected  inspections  of 
Cookhouses.  In  their  operations  they  are  akin  to 
the  Inspectors  in  the  Mechanical  Transport,  and 
like  them,  are  the  terrors  of  the  slacker  and  the 
sloven. 

The  results  of  every  inspection  are  reported  on 
a  form  which  is  specially  prepared  for  this  pur- 
pose. It  records  the  name  of  the  unit,  its  station, 
its  average  daily  feeding  strength,  how  the  food  is 
stored,  whether  the  Master  Cook  is  trained  or  needs 
training,  and  finally  if  a  so-called  stock-pot  is  in 
use.  The  stock-pot  is  a  very  important  first  aid  to 
army  food  saving.  It  is  usually  a  huge  kettle  in 
which  all  surplus  and  eatable  meat  and  bones  are 
dumped  and  which  becomes  the  sanctuary  of  the 
justly  famous  army  stew. 

This  constant  supervision  of  cooking  has  not 
only  reduced  waste  but  enabled  the  British  Army 
to  curtail  its  rations  considerably  during  19 17.  Two 
ounces  a  day  have  been  pinched  ofif  the  allowance 
of  bread  stuffs  except  in  the  cases  of  soldiers  under 


2o6  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

nineteen  who  have  the  prize  appetites  of  the  ser- 
vice. The  salt  ration  has  been  cut  down  by  one- 
fourth  of  an  ounce  per  man  a  day  and  a  consider- 
able saving  has  been  effected  in  the  consumption 
of  tea.  All  these  items  represent  a  saving  in  actual 
cash  of  approximately  $20,000,000  a  year  and  the 
economies  in  this  direction  have  just  begun. 

Although  this  whip-hand  over  waste  reduced  the 
ration  and  eliminated  extravagance  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  food  there  was  still  an  enormous  sacrifice 
in  the  kitchen.  Every  day  in  the  hundreds  of  army 
cookhouses  at  home  and  abroad  the  leavings  from 
plate,  dining  table,  pot  and  skillet  were  dumped  in- 
discriminately into  the  garbage  heap.  These  by- 
products of  the  army  ration  represented,  in  the 
course  of  a  year,  thousands  of  tons  of  bone  and  fat 
which  had  a  perfectly  good  and  profitable  commer- 
cial use.  So  the  Quartermaster  General's  Depart- 
ment bestirred  itself  to  utilise  all  this  waste  with  the 
result  that  it  has  built  up  a  huge  industry  that  con- 
veys one  of  the  most  useful  lessons  of  the  war. 

Two  definite  causes  contributed  to  this  really  re- 
markable conversion  of  refuse  into  money.  The 
first  was  the  daily  reminder  in  the  shape  of  garbage 
that  had  to  be  burned.  The  second  and  more  im- 
portant dealt  with  that  mainstay  of  all  army  ad- 
vance— Munitions.  As  long  ago  as  19 15  England 
realised  that  she  was  paying  an  excessive  price  for 
glycerine,  which  is  one  of  the  essentials  in  the  mak- 
ing of  high  explosives.     The  soap  makers  in  the 


THE  ARMY  FOOD  DRIVE  207 

United  Kingdom  notified  the  government  that 
owing  to  the  abnormal  price  for  glycerine — it  was 
$1,250  a  ton,  against  the  pre-war  price  of  $250 
a  ton — the  American  soap  makers  were  in  a  posi- 
tion to  sell  their  product  abroad  at  a  price  with 
which  the  British  manufacturers  could  not  com- 
pete. 

In  order  to  understand  the  connection  between 
soap  making  and  glycerine  (from  which  nitro-gly- 
cerine  is  made)  you  must  first  know  that  animal  fat 
produces  soap.  One  of  the  by-products  of  soap 
making,  in  turn,  is  the  much  needed  and  now  highly 
prized  glycerine.  One  hundred  pounds  of  fat  pro- 
duces ten  pounds  of  glycerine.  Before  the  war  and 
when  there  was  only  a  normal  demand  for  high  ex- 
plosives, glycerine  had  to  be  content  to  occupy  a 
place  in  the  industrial  catalogue  as  a  mere  by- 
product. Since  the  war  the  tail  wags  the  dog  and 
glycerine  is  as  rare  and  almost  as  precious  as  gold. 
Now  you  can  see  why  the  American  soap  maker 
could  afford  to  sell  his  product  for  a  song  in  the 
United  Kingdom. 

No  wonder  the  British  soap  makers  were  up  in 
arms.  They  made  it  very  clear  to  their  government 
that  if  the  state  of  affairs  that  I  have  just  described 
continued  the  manufacture  of  soap  at  home  would 
have  to  stop  and  the  Government  would  be  entirely 
dependent  upon  the  American  market  for  its  supply 
of  glycerine  and  at  an  excessive  price. 

The  British  Government  at  once  got  busy.     It 


2o8  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

prohibited  the  importation  of  soap  from  the  United 
States  and  decided  to  collect  all  the  fat  from  the 
army  camps  and  use  it  for  the  double  purpose  of 
producing  British-made  soap  and  British  glycerine 
for  British  shells.  Here  you  have  one  of  the  many 
side-lights  on  that  growing  self-sufficiency  of  the 
Empire  which  will  be  a  tremendous  weapon  when 
the  war  is  over. 

An  agreement  was  entered  into  between  the 
Army,  the  Government  and  the  soap  makers.  The 
Army  agreed  to  turn  over  all  the  by-products  of 
camp  and  kitchen  to  the  soap  makers  and  the  soap 
makers,  on  their  part,  undertook  to  supply  the  Min- 
istry of  Munition  with  all  the  glycerine  extracted 
from  the  fat  at  the  pre-war  price  of  $250  a  ton. 
The  scale  of  prices  for  all  refuse  would  depend  upon 
the  market  variations  and  would  be  fixed  each 
month  by  a  group  of  manufacturers  known  as  the 
Committee  for  the  Purchase  of  Army  Camp  Refuse. 
This  Committee  is  headed  by  Mr.  John  W.  Hope, 
one  of  the  soap  kings  of  England,  and  a  business 
man  of  wide  and  practical  experience. 

Now  began  the  great  mobilisation  of  waste  prod- 
ucts. It  was  easier  said  than  done.  Here  was  the 
problem :  In  thousands  of  camps  the  grease  and 
bones  were  dumped  out  every  day.  Obviously  all 
this  litter  could  not  be  conveyed  to  England.  It 
had  to  be  reduced  to  fat  on  the  spot. 

Once  more  a  difficult  technical  proposition  was 
put  up  to  the  Army,  who  met  the  emergency  with 


I 


THE  ARMY  FOOD  DRIVE  209 

customary  resource  and  ingenuity.  A  chemist  in 
the  Royal  Army  Medical  Corps,  Captain  Ellis  by 
name,  who  was  an  Assistant  Inspector  of  Catering 
and  who  had  been  an  expert  chemical  adviser  be- 
fore the  war,  invented  an  apparatus  known  as  the 
Ellis  Field  Fat  Extracting  Plant.  In  this  process 
the  rough  fat  and  bones  collected  from  the  camps 
are  treated  in  boiling  tanks  through  which  super- 
heated steam  is  passed.  The  fat  is  run  out,  put 
into  barrels  or  kegs  and  despatched  to  England  to 
the  Committee  for  the  Purchase  of  Army  Camp 
Refuse.  Altogether  eight  of  these  plants  are  in 
operation  in  France  alone.  There  are  half  a  dozen 
more  in  England.  They  are  usually  attached  to  an 
important  Infantry  Base  where  cooking  is  con- 
ducted on  a  very  large  scale. 

These  Fat  Plants  are  the  wholesale  establish- 
ments. In  order  to  round  up  every  available  scrap 
of  refuse  all  units  in  the  field,  no  matter  how  small, 
become  sources  of  supply  and  represent  the  retail 
end.  These  units  render  the  suet  skimmings  or 
refuse  down  to  what  is  called  dripping,  which  is 
sent  to  Collecting  Depots  in  old  biscuit  and  tea  tins. 
These  Collecting  Depots  are  at  smaller  Bases,  where 
the  erection  of  a  plant  is  not  justified.  If  the  drip- 
ping is  properly  rendered  down  it  is  despatched  at 
once  to  England.  If  not  it  is  sent  on  to  a  Field  Ex- 
tracting Plant  for  further  treaement. 

There  is  a  complete  system  of  accounting.  The 
collection  of  fat  from  the  armies  in  the  field  is  or- 


2IO  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

ganised  as  follows:  The  rendered  dripping  is  hand- 
ed in  to  officers  at  Rail  Head,  who  give  a  receipt 
for  the  weight  received.  Attached  to  this  receipt 
is  a  voucher  for  the  cash  due  the  unit.  This  voucher 
is  legal  tender  at  any  army  canteen.  The  money  is 
used  by  the  men  to  buy  additional  luxuries  such  as 
fresh  vegetables  or  fruit.  Often  the  proceeds  of 
their  kitchen  economy  are  devoted  to  the  purchase 
of  utensils  to  improve  the  Mess  arrangements  of 
the  unit  such  as  extra  dishes,  cruets  and  bacon  cut- 
ters. 

When  dripping  is  sent  direct  to  the  Fat  Extract- 
ing Plant  an  account  is  opened  for  each  unit  and 
it  is  credited  with  every  installment  which  it  sends 
in.  Here,  as  in  the  field,  vouchers  are  attached  to 
every  receipt  and  they  can  be  handed  in  at  the  can- 
teens as  payment  for  supplies. 

I  visited  one  of  these  Field  Fat  Extracting  Plants 
Somewhere  in  France.  It  was  located  near  an  im- 
portant Supply  Depot,  where  thousands  of  men 
were  camped.  It  proclaimed  its  presence  long  be- 
fore I  reached  it.  It  was  like  approaching  Packing- 
town  in  Chicago  when  the  wind  was  in  the  wrong 
direction.  In  charge  was  a  young  lieutenant  who 
before  this  war  had  encountered  nothing  stronger 
in  the  way  of  odours  than  the  breeze  from  the 
Thames.  Now  he  laboured  in  the  midst  of  a  fright- 
ful stench.  He  had  been  wounded  twice,  as  his  two 
sleeve  stripes  showed,  and  might  have  had  a  soft 
desk  job  at  home.     But  he  was  willing  to  stick  it 


THE  ARMY  FOOD  DRIVE  211 

out  on  a  task  that  he  frankly  admitted  was  much 
more  trying  than  fighting  Germans. 

The  plant  was  as  busy  as  it  was  smelly.  Every 
now  and  then  a  big  army  motor  truck  would  rattle 
up  with  a  load  of  garbage.  Special  containers  are 
used  which  bear  the  number  of  their  army  unit.  Off 
to  one  side  was  a  swill  warehouse.  All  the  leav- 
ings of  the  rendering  plant  together  with  accumu- 
lated potato  peelings  are  sold  to  the  French  farm- 
ers for  hog  food  at  fifty  cents  a  barrel.  The  busi- 
ness at  this  particular  place  was  so  extensive  that 
a  bookkeeper  was  constantly  employed  to  keep 
track  of  its  affairs. 

The  conversion  of  actual  meat  refuse  into  fat 
for  soap  making  is  only  due  phase  of  the  utilisation 
of  waste  products.  Bones  compete  with  drippings 
in  salvage  importance.  After  all  the  fat  is  boiled 
out  of  the  bones — (one  hundred  pounds  of  bone  pro- 
duce ten  pounds  of  fat) — the  remains  are  used  for 
the  manufacture  of  tooth  and  nail  brushes,  while 
the  small  pieces  are  crushed  and  sold  for  fertiliser. 

Even  the  scraps  from  the  soldiers'  plates  are  util- 
ised. When  you  go  to  an  Army  Mess  Hall  you  will 
observe  that  every  soldier  files  out  plate  in  hand. 
Outside  the  door  he  stops  at  a  tub  and  scrapes  all 
the  leavings  on  the  dish  into  it.  These  leavings  are 
dried  and  chopped  up  for  chicken  food.  Bread 
crumbs  are  treated  the  same  way. 

The  system  which  assembles  Army  Refuse  is  as 
complete  as  scientific  business  methods  can  devise. 


212  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

In  every  Army  Cookhouse  hangs  a  comprehensive 
chart  issued  by  the  Committee  for  the  Purchase  of 
Army  Camp  Refuse,  which  shows  how  recoveries 
of  fat  are  made.  From  this  chart  the  cook  can  see 
how  to  cut  off  suet,  trimmings  and  so-called 
"butcher's  fat"  from  the  raw  material;  how  to  get 
cracklings,  skimmings  and  all  scraps  from  the 
processes  of  cooking;  how  to  retrieve  sausage  skins, 
bacon  rind,  the  marrow  from  bone  after  the  food 
is  served — in  fact,  how  to  utilise  every  possible 
square  inch  of  food  that  passes  through  his  hands. 
This  economy  has  almost  become  a  vice  because  an 
Army  Order  had  to  be  issued  last  September  re- 
questing cooks  not  to  pare  down  their  trimmings 
for  glycerine  fat  too  close.  The  actual  food  supply 
was  sometimes  impaired  through  overzeal.  This 
resulted  from  competition  between  units  to  secure 
high  figures  in  the  monthly  by-products  return. 

The  cost  of  setting  up  and  operating  the  Fat  Ex- 
tracting Plants  is  obtained  from  a  Central  Fund 
created  by  retaining  a  small  difference  between  the 
price  obtained  for  the  fat  from  the  Committee  for 
the  Purchase  of  Army  Camp  Refuse  and  the  price 
paid  the  Units  for  the  waste  material.  This  fund 
is  administered  by  the  Inspection  Department  of 
the  Quartermaster  General's  Service.  Out  of  it  is 
paid  the  cost  of  erection  of  factories,  labour  and  the 
maintenance  of  the  various  Collecting  Depots. 

I  can  give  you  no  better  idea  of  the  results  of 
these  salvage  operations  than  to  say  that  last  year 


THE  ARMY  FOOD  DRIVE  213 

enough  glycerine  was  obtained  from  army  fat  to 
provide  the  propellant  for  18,000,000  eighteen- 
pound  shells.  This  means  that  approximately  1,800 
tons  of  glycerine  were  obtained  from  the  refuse  of 
the  camp  kitchens.  This  glycerine,  sold  to  the  Min- 
istry of  Munitions  at  the  pre-war  price  of  $250  a 
ton,  meant  a  net  saving  of  $1,000  a  ton,  or  exactly 
$1,800,000.  In  addition  to  this  the  soldier  got  the 
benefit  of  many  luxuries  which  made  him  much 
more  contented  and  therefore  more  efficient. 

The  gross  income  from  the  sale  of  by-products 
alone  last  year  was  $3,940,000.  Add  to  this  the 
saving  in  the  cost  of  glycerine  and  the  value  of  the 
reduction  in  rations  brought  about  by  the  super- 
vision of  cooking  and  other  economies  and  you  get 
a  total  saving  estimated  to  be  not  less  than  $30,- 
000,000.  A  larger  phase  of  this  conservation  lies 
in  the  fact  that  it  enabled  a  considerable  amount  of 
food  to  be  released  to  the  general  public.  At  the 
same  time  the  Army  and  Navy  got  all  its  soap  free 
of  charge,  which  is  part  of  the  contract  with  the 
Committee  for  the  Purchase  of  Army  Refuse.  At 
Salonika  the  British  Army  not  only  renders  all  its 
fat,  but  conducts  its  own  soap  factory. 

So  successful  and  wide-spread  is  the  army  refuse 
business  that  a  company  had  to  be  formed  to  run  it. 
It  is  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Army  Council 
and  is  called  the  Army  Waste  Products  Company, 
Ltd.  It  is  organised  and  operated  just  like  any 
British  Corporation.     The  Quartermaster  General 


214  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

'■'■■■■■———■■'■    -  ■■  '   ■  II  ■    ■  ■■■< 

to  all  the  Forces,  Lieutenant  General  Sir  John  S. 
Cowans,  is  President,  while  Major  General  F.  W. 
B.  Landon,  Chief  Inspector  of  the  Quartermaster 
General's  Services,  is  Vice  President  and  General 
Manager.  Although  the  capital  is  only  seven  shill- 
ings— about  $1.75 — it  does  a  business  in  all  its 
branches  of  many  millions  of  dollars  a  year.  It 
could  pay  dividends  that  would  compare  favorably 
with  some  of  the  "melons"  cut  by  successful  Ameri- 
can concerns. 

More  important  perhaps  than  these  imposing 
profits  is  the  permanent  lesson  to  every  man  who 
touches  the  salvage  system.  He  realises  an  asset 
that  will  be  a  bulwark  for  his  future.  He  will  go 
back  to  peace  not  only  richer  in  experience  but  more 
frugal  in  habit.  The  army  cook,  for  instance, 
disciplined  in  economy  with  Government  property, 
will  instinctively  husband  his  own.  It  will  estab- 
lish the  precedent  for  his  whole  family. 

This  contact  with  conservation  is  full  brother  to 
that  other  and  equally  constructive  preachment  em- 
bodied in  the  lesson  of  the  War  Savings  Certificate, 
which  has  taught  the  Briton  to  think  in  terms  of 
thrift  and  which  is  now  happily  becoming  a  part  of 
American  economic  life. 

The  whole  British  Army  Salvage  Scheme  empha- 
sises the  need  of  a  Junk  and  Refuse  Dictator  in 
the  United  States  for  a  control  of  Salvage  would 
save  it  untold  millions  and  help  to  shorten  the  war. 
It  also  points  the  world  a  way  to  a  retrenchment  in 


THE  ARMY  FOOD  DRIVE  215 

money  and  materials  that  is  in  many  respects  the 
most  valuable  dividend  yet  declared  by  the  Business 
of  War. 
War  is  not  all  Waste. 


IX— TA^  Wares  of  War 


WHEREVER  you  journey  in  the  zones 
of  the  armies  you  cannot  fail  to  be 
impressed  with  the  almost  ceaseless 
movement  of  ammunition  trains.  Day  and 
night  the  lorries  and  wagons  rumble  up  and 
down  the  beaten  highways  hauling  the  deadly 
freight  which  is  as  precious  and  priceless  as  food. 
Turn  from  the  road  and  your  eye  lights  upon  the 
familiar  white  and  blue  flag  which  indicates  the 
presence  of  the  ammunition  "dump." 

After  the  Commissariat  the  question  of  shell  sup- 
ply is  the  most  important  in  the  war.  Preponder- 
ance of  munition  resource  gave  Germany  her  first 
great  advantage  in  the  conflict.  It  took  Great 
Britain  more  than  a  year  to  catch  up. 

Ammunition  provides  one  of  the  stupendous 
items  of  war  expenditure  both  in  material  and 
money.  This  is  a  war  of  ammunition.  In  the  first 
battle  of  the  Somme,  for  example,  more  shells  were 
expended  in  a  week  than  were  used  in  the  whole 
Boer  War,  The  appetites  of  the  iron  mouths  are 
never  appeased. 

The  average  visitor  to  the  war  regards  the  pro- 
vision of  shells  and  guns  as  a  matter  of  course. 
But,  like  Supply  and  Transport,  it  is  a  perfectly  or- 
ganised, well-oiled  and  admirably  conducted  annex 

216 


JHE  WARES  OF  WAR  217 

of  the  Business  of  War — just  another  cog  in  a  mar- 
vellous machine. 

With  this  phase  of  operation  you  leave  the  Do- 
main of  the  Quartermaster  General  and  enter  the 
Bailiwick  of  the  Master  General  of  Ordnance, 
whose  task  is  to  provide  arms  of  all  description, 
guns  and  gun  carriages,  ammunition,  vehicles  which 
are  mainly  mechanical  transport,  and  telephone  and 
telegraph  stores.  The  principal  items,  however,  are 
guns  and  ammunition.  Instead  of  looking  to  the 
Surveyor  General  of  Supply  to  stock  his  grim 
shelves  as  is  the  case  with  food  and  general  equip- 
ment, he  is  allied  with  the  Minister  of  Munitions, 
who  is  the  Master  Merchandiser  of  the  Wares  of 
War. 

Again  you  have  the  spectacle  of  a  titanic  agency 
of  supply.  It  is  as  far-flung  as  the  war  itself.  It 
ranges  from  the  factories  of  the  United  States  and 
Canada  to  the  controlled  establishments  of  England 
and  Scotland  where  millions  of  men  and  women, 
recruited  from  all  ranks,  labour  day  and  night  in 
the  eternal  effort  to  feed  the  hungry  maws  of  gun, 
trench  mortar  and  rifle.  As  Britain's  home  sources 
of  shell  supply  have  grown  she  has  become  less  de- 
pendent upon  her  overseas  Allies.  The  Ministry  of 
Munitions  to-day  is  almost  self-sufficient. 

No  evidence  of  England's  war  expansion  is  more 
eloquent  or  illuminating  than  the  rise  of  this  stu- 
pendous engine  of  production.  From  a  small  room 
in  Whitehall  in  London  where  a  few  devoted  en- 


2i8  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

gineers,  ship-builders,  chemists  and  inventors  ral- 
lied around  Lloyd  George  in  191 5,  it  has  grown 
into  a  vast  business  which  operates  directly  or  indi- 
rectly more  than  four  thousand  factories  and  em- 
ploys in  its  inspection  work  alone,  an  army  almost 
equal  to  the  entire  First  Seven  Divisions — Eng- 
land's regular  army — which  rushed  to  the  relief  of 
Belgium,  It  has  been  the  largest  contributing 
factor  to  England's  Industrial  development;  it  has 
enriched  science,  stimulated  research;  it  will  be 
Britain's  mechanical  bulwark  when  the  war  is  over 
and  the  bloodless  trade  conflicts  of  peace  begin. 

With  ammunition,  as  with  every  other  detail, 
this  war  has  smashed  all  precedents  and  established 
amazing  standards  of  scope  and  output.  In  the 
Boer  War  the  4.7  gun  was  the  heaviest  employed; 
in  this  war  the  armies  in  the  field  use  twelve  and 
fifteen  inch  howitzers  that  weigh,  with  their  car- 
riages, more  than  two  hundred  tons.  In  the  Boer 
War  500  rounds  of  ammunition  were  considered  a 
large  supply  for  a  gun;  to-day  no  gun  would  re- 
gard itself  well  supplied  with  less  than  5,000.  Now 
you  can  get  some  idea  of  the  demands  made  upon 
shell  factories. 

You  get  a  further  conception  of  ammunition 
needs  when  I  go  on  to  say  that  leaving  out  rifle 
and  revolver  cartridges,  which  must  be  supplied  by 
the  hundreds  of  millions,  the  Ministry  of  Muni- 
tions is  called  upon  to  produce  shells  for  twelve  dif- 
ferent calibres  of  cannon,  ranging  from  the  three- 


THE  WARES  OF  WAR  219 

inch  anti-aircraft  guns — the  "Archies" — to  fifteen- 
inch  howitzers.  Not  only  must  these  guns  be  fed 
incessantly  but  an  immense  reserve  is  absolutely 
necessary  in  every  theatre  of  war.  This  means 
that  the  "M.G.O.,"  as  the  Master  General  of  Ord- 
nance is  called,  is  required  to  have  his  own  fleet 
of  ammunition  ships  whose  crews  are  carefully 
trained  in  the  handling  of  high  explosives.  In  some 
of  the  compartments  of  these  ships  the  workers 
wear  felt  slippers  in  order  to  minimise  the  danger 
of  explosion. 

In  any  study  of  shell  supply  the  first  and  most 
natural  question  is:  How  does  the  Ministry  of  Mu- 
nitions know  what  and  how  much  to  make?  With 
food  this  task  is  comparatively  easy.  The  Quarter- 
master General  is  told  how  many  men  must  be  fed 
everywhere  and  since  there  is  a  definite  ration  it 
becomes  a  simple  matter  of  mathematics. 

With  ammunition  the  operation  is  almost  identi- 
cal. Here,  as  with  Supply,  the  organisation  is  care- 
fully charted  and  diagramed.  At  the  War  Office, 
in  addition  to  the  Master  General  of  Ordnance,  is 
a  Director  of  Artillery,  who  is  the  link  between 
Supply  and  Demand.  He  has  an  opposite  number 
in  the  field  known  as  the  Director  of  Ordnance 
Services,  who  is  established  at  General  Headquar- 
ters in  France  or  at  the  headquarters  of  the  other 
overseas  armies. 

The  Director  of  Ordnance  Services  is  the  apex  of 
a  pyramid  which  extends  to  every  army  in  the  field. 


220  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

His  voice  and  interpreter  is  a  Deputy  Director  of 
Ordnance  Services,  who,  in  turn,  is  represented  by 
Assistant  Deputies  of  Ordnance  Services.  Carry- 
ing the  service  straight  into  the  zones  of  the  fight- 
ing armies  you  find  that  with  each  Division  there 
is  a  Deputy  Assistant  Director  of  Ordnance  Ser- 
vices, or  "Dados"  as  he  is  commonly  known.  He 
corresponds  to  the  Senior  Supply  Officer  who  makes 
the  food  demands  for  a  division. 

The  Director  of  Artillery  at  the  War  Office  is  in 
constant  touch  by  telephone  and  telegraph  with  the 
Director  of  Ordnance  Services  at  G.H.Q.  He 
knows  how  many  guns  are  in  commission  and  just 
what  they  need.  Each  gun,  big  or  little,  can  only 
be  fired  a  certain  number  of  times  during  every 
twenty-four  hours.  Provision  therefore  is  made 
according  to  these  needs.  In  the  case  of  a  big  push 
which  is  always  inaugurated  with  an  immense  bom- 
bardment, advance  orders  are  sent  in  from  the 
field :  the  munition  factories  are  speeded  up  and 
tremendous  reserves  are  accumulated.  When  the 
iron  dogs  are  unleashed  they  can  bark  with  unre- 
strained fury. 

It  was  not  always  so.  During  that  first  terrible 
twelve  months  of  war  when  German  preparedness 
took  its  frightful  toll  in  Belgium  and  Flanders  the 
British  guns  were  well-nigh  impotent.  Shells  had 
to  be  husbanded  just  like  sugar  was  hoarded  a  few 
years  later.  But  all  that  was  part  of  the  unhappy 
task.     Thanks  to  the  patriotism  of  British  labour, 


THE  WARES  OF  WAR  221 

and  particularly  to  that  million  of  women  workers, 
England  to-day  has  a  surplus  of  ammunition,  some 
of  which  has  been  generously  placed  at  the  disposal 
of  her  Allies,  including  the  United  States. 

To  visualise  this  colossal  business  of  shell  supply 
let  me  take  you  for  a  brief  visit  to  the  greatest  of 
British  arsenals — oldest  in  point  of  service,  and 
whose  personnel  alone  affords  some  idea  of  the  ex- 
pansion in  munitions  labour.  In  August,  19 14,  the 
staff  consisted  of  10,866  persons.  Now  it  amounts 
to  73,571.  The  number  of  women  employed  in  19 14 
was  125;  to-day  it  is  close  on  to  25,000.  In  order 
to  provision  a  part  of  these  workers  thirty-five  can- 
teens have  had  to  be  established. 

At  this  great  arsenal  only  components  of  shells 
are  produced.  Each  shell,  it  is  interesting  to  know, 
is  the  sum  of  many  items.  The  cartridges  are  made 
in  one  place,  tubes  and  fuses  in  another,  propellants 
in  a  third.  All  these  parts  must  be  "married,"  as 
the  phrase  goes,  into  a  complete  round.  This 
"marriage"  is  consummated  at  the  National  Filling 
Factories,  of  which  there  are  seventeen  throughout 
Great  Britain.  Their  capacity  is  considerably  more 
than  50,000  tons  a  week.  This  output  would  cover 
five  acres  of  space  and  would  require  5,000  railway 
trucks  for  transport. 

Each  one  of  these  Filling  Factories  has  a  specific 
task.  Some  fill  shells;  others  fill  cartridges,  while 
still  others  assemble  the  i8-pounder  ammunition. 
Four  of  them  fill  fuses  and  tubes  exclusively. 


222,  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

The  great  arsenal  to  which  I  have  referred  hap- 
pens to  be  a  combination  of  all  ammunition  ac- 
tivities in  that  it  produces  component  parts  and 
fills.  Here  you  see  acres  of  shells  of  every  kind 
and  description.  The  deadly  high  explosives — 
"H.E." — are  always  yellow  in  color  and  are 
handled  with  much  greater  care  than  any  other  type. 
The  field  gun  shells  are  black.  The  large  ones  are 
in  wicker  baskets  to  expedite  handling  and  look  like 
jugs  of  death. 

An  ammunition  supply  Depot  is  something  like 
the  great  Base  Supply  Depots  operated  by  the  Quar- 
termaster General.  Everything  is  systematised.  The 
munitions  are  kept  in  huge  storehouses.  The  officer 
in  charge  of  each  one  of  these  structures  is  re- 
quired to  keep  what  is  called  Storehouse  Tally, 
which  is  a  complete  and  up-to-the-minute  record 
of  supplies  received  and  issued.  Thus  he  can  tell 
at  any  time  just  how  many  shells  of  every  variety 
he  has  on  hand.  Since  there  is  always  the  hazard 
of  air  raids  each  battalion  of  shells  is  safeguarded^ 
by  piles  of  sand-bags.  The  precautions  against  fire 
are  most  stringent.  The  penalty  against  smoking 
is  everything  but  death. 

The  same  system  follows  the  ammunition  from 
the  moment  it  leaves  the  storehouse  or  the  Filling 
Factory  to  the  ship,  where  it  is  loaded  for  France, 
Salonika,  Egypt,  Mesopotamia  or  Africa.  Indeed, 
a  record  is  kept  of  every  shell  until  it  goes  into  the 
gun. 


THE  WARES  OF  WAR  223 

The  system  of  railway  transport  in  England  is 
typical  of  the  completeness  of  the  organisation. 
For  every  railway  truck  there  is  an  army  truck 
card  which  contains  a  description  of  the  stores,  the 
number  of  shells,  the  hour  loaded  and  the  destina- 
tion. A  duplicate  of  this  truck  card  is  kept  at  the 
storehouse ;  another  goes  with  the  car  as  a  voucher. 
It  is  tacked  on  the  outside  so  that  the  receiving 
officer  can  check  up  the  freight  at  once.  A  com- 
plete ammunition  train  consists  of  fifty  trucks.  More 
than  one  thousand  trucks  are  loaded  every  day,  and 
there  is  a  continuous  procession  of  trains  rushing 
daily  toward  the  three  ports  in  the  south  of  Eng- 
land, where  every  night  the  ships  depart  with  their 
cargoes  of  destruction.  Each  ship  carries  a  mani- 
fest of  its  freight  in  duplicate.  One  of  these  is  re- 
tained by  the  receiving  officer  in  France  or  else- 
where, while  the  other  goes  back  as  a  receipt  for 
goods  received. 

Coincident  with  the  departure  of  the  ammunition 
ship  a  telegram  is  sent  to  the  Director  of  Ordnance 
Service  at  G.H.Q.  apprising  him  of  the  shipment. 
This  wire  is  in  no  way  an  advice  for  shipping  pur- 
poses, but  is  sent  to  give  the  D.  O.  S.  immediate 
information  about  what  he  is  receiving.  Here 
again  you  get  illuminating  evidence  of  the  value  of 
knowledge  in  warfare.  As  in  the  supply  of  food 
the  whole  aim  is  to  give  the  fighting  man  immediate 
intelligence  of  what  is  being  done  for  him.  It  is 
the  antidote  of  worry.    Long  experience  has  proved 


224  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

that  anxiety  about  supplies  in  war  is  far  more 
deadly  than  enemy  bullets. 

With  ammunition  distribution  you  find  another 
interesting  parallel  with  food.  Some  of  the  ships 
carrying  munitions  use  the  French  ports  that  sup- 
ply the  Northern  Lines  of  Communication,  while 
others  make  the  southern  ports  for  the  Southern 
Lines.  Immediately  upon  their  arrival  across  the 
Channel  the  shells  are  landed,  loaded  into  trucks 
and  distributed  to  the  various  base  and  field  Supply 
Depots  under  instructions  from  General  Headquar- 
ters. 

In  France  there  are  six  immense  ammunition 
depots,  three  on  the  Northern  Line  and  three  on 
the  Southern.  Each  Depot  keeps  a  supply  of  35,000 
tons  of  ammunition.  This  includes  about  17,500 
tons  of  boxed  ammunition,  14,000  tons  of  heavy 
ammunition  and  3,500  tons  of  trench  warfare  stores 
and  small-arm  ammunition. 

Ammunition  is  issued  at  each  Depot  and  con- 
signed to  certain  rail  heads  in  the  field  which  be- 
come, in  turn,  the  distributing  points  for  the  fight- 
ing units.  These  rail  heads  have  a  certain  number 
of  Army  and  Corps  dumps  to  supply.  I  might 
state  right  here  that  any  accumulation  of  ammuni- 
tion in  the  field  is  called  a  dump.  The  word  is  self- 
explanatory.  A  dump  may  be  an  open  field  by 
the  roadside,  where  the  shells  are  stacked  up  on 
boards  and  covered  with  heavily  camouflaged  tar- 
paulins, or  a  temporary  storehouse.     The  enemy 


THE  WARES  OF  WAR  225 

would  rather  bombard  an  ammunition  depot  than 
successfully  raid  a  trench.  There  is  always  a  heav- 
ily armed  guard  at  these  dumps  and  they  invariably 
fly  a  white  flag  with  a  square  blue  field.  This  flag 
is  the  emblem  of  what  is  known  as  the  Divisional 
Ammunition  Column. 

The  transport  of  ammunition  in  the  field  is  a  very 
difficult  proposition.  From  rail  head  to  dump  the 
three  and  five-ton  motor  trucks  are  used.  They 
are  always  marked  with  a  white  shell  and  take 
precedence  over  all  other  traffic.  From  the  dump 
up  to  the  firing  line  our  old  and  tried  friend,  the 
Horse  Transport,  is  the  carrier.  As  with  food,  these 
horse  and  mule-drawn  vehicles  are  the  patient  and 
unswerving  link  with  actual  battle.  They  usually 
go  up  at  night  when  the  way  is  dark  and  full  of 
troubles.  In  the  first  battle  of  the  Somme  and  in 
Haig's  great  push  in  Flanders  last  November  when 
the  weather  remained  persistently  pro-German  and 
the  roads  became  so  nearly  impassable  that  even 
Horse  Transport  could  not  be  used  thousands  of 
shells  had  to  be  sent  up  to  the  front  on  the  backs 
of  mules  and  horses  and  were  even  carried  by  hand. 

Some  shells,  however,  are  so  huge  that  they  re- 
quire mechanical  transport.  A  whole  system  of 
tractors  is  engaged  solely  in  the  work  of  convey- 
ing howitzer  ammunition  from  rail  head  to  battery. 
In  some  instances  light  railways  are  used.  I  cite 
these  facts  merely  to  show  how  infinite  is  the  vari- 


226  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

ety  of  specialised  labour  imposed  upon  the  armies 
in  the  field. 

The  item  of  gun  supply  does  not  call  for  any 
elaborate  explanation.  Just  as  a  lathe  is  a  lathe, 
a  gun  is  a  gun.  The  Master  General  of  Ordnance 
is  charged  with  the  task  of  renewing  old  ordnance 
and  supplying  new  cannon.  Except  where  a  gun  is 
absolutely  put  out  of  commission  by  a  shell  it  is  sal- 
vaged and  in  eighty  per  cent  of  cases  is  restored  to 
service.  Throughout  the  zones  of  fighting  you  find 
so-called  Gun  Parks  where  you  see  row  after  row 
of  guns  of  all  calibres  with  limbers  and  other  equip- 
ment ready  to  take  their  place  in  the  battle  line. 
Once  more  the  reserve  supply  is  the  insurance 
against  disaster. 

Ordnance  in  this  war  means  a  great  deal  more 
than  shells  and  guns.  As  a  matter  of  specific  fact 
it  includes  not  less  than  eight  thousand  items,  which 
range  from  a  nail  to  a  fire  engine.  They  come 
under  the  head  of  what  is  technically  known  as 
Ordnance  Stores.  The  provision  of  this  well-nigh 
incredible  mass  of  commodities  is  under  the  gen- 
eral supervision  of  the  Quartermaster  General, 
whose  chief  Aide  is  the  official  known  as  the  Direc- 
tor of  Equipment  and  Ordnance  Stores. 

If  you  want  to  get  some  notion  of  what  Ordnance 
Stores  means  just  take  a  trip  to  Woolwich  and  look 
at  the  so-called  Ordnance  Stores  Museum.  Here 
you  will  find  a  sample  of  every  one  of  the  eight 
thousand  items  included  in  the  Vocabulary,  which 


THE  WARES  OF  WAR  227 

is  the  Bible  of  Ordnance  Stores  Supply.  Every 
one  of  these  items  is  sealed  with  the  red  War  Office 
seal,  which  means  that  it  is  a  pattern  and  has  been 
officially  adopted  by  the  army.  It  ranges  from 
camp  chairs  to  field  communion  sets.  Contractors 
who  want  to  compete  for  army  bids  come  here  and 
examine  the  models.  Sometimes  a  model  is  sent  to  a 
local  Chamber  of  Commerce  located  in  a  city  which 
happens  to  be  a  centre  of  a  manufacturing  district. 

The  matter  of  Ordnance  Stores  in  the  army  is, 
of  cQurse,  vitally  important.  In  order  to  prevent 
omission  of  any  article  what  is  called  a  Mobilisation 
Stores  Table  is  provided  for  each  unit  whether  it 
be  an  infantry  battalion,  battery  of  light  or  heavy 
artillery,  or  hospital  corps.  This  Table  serves  as  a 
record  of  the  war  equipment  of  the  unit.  It  item- 
ises every  article  needed  by  the  unit.  In  the  con- 
crete case  of  an  Infantry  Battalion  it  includes  such 
articles  as  bags,  mess  tins,  whistles,  pistols,  wire 
cutters,  web  equipment,  which  includes  belts,  braces, 
haversacks,  packs  and  carriers  for  cartridges  and 
entrenching  tools,  bugles,  drums,  axes,  buckets, 
cooking  utensils,  ropes,  horse  blankets,  shovels,  har- 
ness, saddles,  compasses,  blankets,  bicycles,  stretch- 
ers, arms,  clothing  and  scores  of  other  commodi- 
ties too  numerous  to  mention. 

Despite  this  immense  number  of  stores  a  com- 
plete record  is  kept  of  every  item.  The  Quarter- 
master of  the  unit  is  held  responsible  for  issue  and 
consumption. 


228  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

The  provision  of  these  Ordnance  Stores  is  in  itself 
a  full-sized  job.  It  is  as  completely  and  as  scien- 
tifically organised  as  the  contracting  and  purveying 
of  food.  In  fact  it  is  a  replica  of  the  system  adopt- 
ed by  the  Surveyor  General  of  Supply  and  which 
has  been  described  in  a  previous  chapter.  The  speci- 
fications are  printed  and  sent  to  prospective  bidders. 
Once  the  contract  is  made  the  goods  automatically 
pass  under  an  incessant  scrutiny.  This  is  techni- 
cally known  as  Inspection  of  Ordnance  Stores. 

The  inspectors  are  called  Viewers.  They  are 
civilians  drafted  from  mill  and  factory  who  are  the 
best  experts  available.  Each  Viewer  has  a  specialty. 
It  may  be  iron,  wood  or  wool.  At  Woolwich,  for 
example,  which  is  the  centre  of  an  extensive  in- 
spection district,  there  is  an  admirable  system  of 
keeping  tab  on  the  work.  Each  inspector  is  indi- 
cated by  a  flag  which  is  the  colour  of  the  type  of 
work  he  inspects.  A  red  flag  indicates  iron  work; 
the  blue  is  wood,  and  so  on.  Each  man's  name  is 
on  his  flag.  If  the  Chief  Viewer  wants  to  know 
where  John  Jones,  wood  inspector,  is,  he  simply 
looks  at  a  huge  chart  on  the  wall  and  finds  his  flag. 
If  John  Jones  is  inspecting  at  Manchester  the  flag 
will  be  stuck  in  the  circle  marked  "Manchester."  If 
he  has  need  of  John  Jones'  services  in  a  nearby  city 
he  can  at  once  assign  him  to  the  contract  without 
delay.  It  is  the  science  of  business  having  just 
one  more  manifestation  in  the  work  of  the  war. 


X — A  Vmt  to  Sir  Douglas  Haig 

FOR  days  I  had  run  the  gamut  of  the  guns; 
ranged  the  whole  long  British  battle-line 
until  the  world  seemed  a  chaos  of  trench 
and  traffic  shaken  by  a  deadly  din.  Suddenly  I 
came  to  a  quiet  backwater  in  this  whirlpool  of  war. 

It  was  a  modest  chateau  well  off  the  beaten  road, 
so  screened  by  French  poplars  that  its  quietude  sug- 
gested the  aloof  and  untroubled  days  of  peace.  The 
red  flag  that  fluttered  at  the  gate,  the  presence  of 
more  than  the  usual  number  of  sentries,  the  distant 
rumble  of  artillery,  were  the  only  external  evidences 
that  this  secluded  house  which  basked  in  the  winter 
sun  was  linked  with  the  world's  greatest  conflict. 

Yet  amid  those  friendly  trees  is  the  nerve  centre 
of  the  mightiest  English  military  machine  ever 
created;  from  its  pleasant  drawing  room  that  looks 
out  upon  an  Old-World  garden  are  issued  the  com- 
mands at  which  millions  of  armed  men  leap  to  ac- 
tion; toward  it  countless  anxious  hearts  turn  every 
day  for  the  tidings  of  cheer  or  despair.  For  here 
are  the  headquarters  of  Field  Marshal  Sir  Douglas 
Haig,  Commander-in-Chief  of  all  the  British 
Armies  in  France  and  Flanders. 

I  have  seen  army  and  corps  headquarters  far 
more  pretentious  than  the  domicile  that  shelters 
the  chieftain  of  them  all.    It  is  characteristic  of  the 

229 


230  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

silent  soldier  who  literally  wields  the  power  of  life 
and  death  that  the  seat  of  his  fateful  authority 
should  be  like  the  man  himself — simple,  dignified, 
impressive.  You  get  a  hint  of  Haig  before  you  see 
him. 

The  environment  of  the  Commander-in-Chief  is 
strongly  suggestive  of  his  conduct  of  the  war.  Be- 
fore war  became  a  thing  of  precise  science  the  head- 
quarters of  an  army  head  seethed  with  all  the  pic- 
turesque details  so  common  to  pictures  of  martial 
life.  Couriers  mounted  on  foam-decked  horses 
dashed  to  and  fro ;  the  air  was  vibrant  with  action ; 
the  fate  of  battle  showed  on  the  face  of  the  hum- 
blest orderly. 

But  to-day  headquarters  are  totally  different.  Al- 
though army  units  have  arisen  from  thousands  to 
millions  of  men,  and  fields  of  operations  stretch 
from  sea  to  sea,  and  more  ammunition  is  expended 
in  a  single  engagement  than  was  employed  in  entire 
wars  of  other  days,  absolute  serenity  prevails.  It 
is  only  when  your  imagination  conjures  up  the  pic- 
ture of  flame  and  fury  that  lies  beyond  the  horizon 
line  that  you  get  a  thrill. 

An  occasional  motor  car  driven  by  a  soldier- 
chauffeur  chugs  up  the  gravel  road  to  the  chateau, 
and  from  it  emerge  earnest- faced  officers  whose 
visits  are  usually  brief.  Neither  time  nor  words 
are  wasted  when  myriad  lives  hang  in  the  balance 
and  an  empire  is  at  stake.     Inside  and  out  there  is 


fi     >'    ,7    "1'  '        ,    'n    Francis   Dodd. 

FIELD  MARSHAL  SIR  DOUGLAS  HAIG 


A  VISIT  TO  SIR  DOUGLAS  HAIG   231 

an  atmosphere  of  quiet  confidence,  born  of  unob- 
trusive efficiency. 

This  is  due  first  to  the  fact  that  it  is  the  Haig 
way  of  doing  things;  second  to  the  consideration 
that  war  now  is  a  vast  and  well-oiled  industry,  car- 
ried on  with  such  perfect  organisation  that  to  the 
American  trained  to  study  the  mechanics  of  huge 
corporations  in  his  own  country  it  seems  strangely 
familiar.  Make  the  most  elemental  comparison  and 
you  see  at  once  how  close  the  parallel  is. 

That  modest  chateau  hemmed  in  by  poplars  is 
nothing  more  or  less  than  the  executive  office  of 
the  deadliest  but  best  organised  business  in  the 
world.  It  houses  the  mainspring  of  the  most  colos- 
sal system  of  merchandising  that  commerce  has 
ever  known.  Strip  away  the  glamour  and  you  have 
merely  merchandising  with  men  instead  of  goods. 
You  have  every  consecutive  process  of  business  evo- 
lution. Instead  of  representing  the  conversion  of 
pig  iron  into  motors  you  have  the  translation  of 
raw  human  material  into  expert  fighting  men. 

The  Commander-in-Chief  bears  the  same  relation 
to  the  carrying  on  of  war  that  a  master  sales  mana- 
ger bears  to  the  dissemination  of  a  product.  His 
task  is  to  deploy  his  output  where  it  can  hit  the 
hardest,  and  on  the  success  of  his  alinement  his 
cause  stands  or  falls. 

What  would  represent  profit  in  trade  is  here  ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  advance;  in  territory  gained. 


232  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

The  highest  dividend  is  victory,  the  permanent 
aftermath  is  peace  and  Hberty. 

Study  Haig  and  the  British  Army  at  close  range 
and  you  find  that  War  is  Work — the  most  difficult, 
desperate  and  unremitting  labour  that  the  hand  and 
brain  of  man  ever  devised.  The  price  of  freedom, 
as  fought  for  on  the  battlefields  of  Europe  to-day,  is 
infinite  but  organised  toil  knit  by  sacrifice  and  fed 
by  patriotism. 

To  write  of  Sir  Douglas  Haig  is  to  write  not 
only  of  the  conspicuous  military  leadership,  but 
also  of  the  kindling  response  that  an  untrained  and 
undisciplined  people  made  to  organised  and  long- 
pending  aggression. 

Ever  since  the  beginning  of  the  present  war  the 
average  American  has  constantly  asked  himself: 
"How  is  a  war  involving  millions  of  men  and  ex- 
tending over  an  immense  area  conducted?"  He  is 
baffled  by  problems  of  transport  and  communica- 
tion, demand  and  supply.  Shells  are  no  respecters 
of  hunger  or  sleep.  He  marvels  that  armies  of  two 
nations  speaking  different  languages  and  operating 
in  separate  spheres  can  co-operate  and  co-ordinate. 
All  this  and  much  more  piles  up  the  huge  question : 
"How  is  it  done?" 

You  find  much  of  the  answer  crystallised  in  one 
word — team-work.  It  is  the  essence  of  the  for- 
mula which  expresses  the  success  of  Sir  Douglas 
Haig  and  explains  the  advance  of  the  British  Army. 
If  such  a  thing  were  possible  you  would  find  it 


A  VISIT  TO  SIR  DOUGLAS  HAIG   233 

emblazoned  over  the  doorway  of  that  unassuming 
headquarters  chateau  "somewhere  in  France." 

Thus  the  get-together  idea,  which  in  war  spells 
the  brotherhood  of  the  firing  line,  lies  at  the  very 
root  of  all  that  the  British  khakied  host  has 
achieved  on  the  Western  front.  Its  guide,  com- 
pass and  friend  is  the  Commander-in-Chief.  At  his 
disposal  are  placed  the  human  battalions;  all  the 
materials  with  which  to  feed  and  fight.  Up  to  him 
is  put  squarely  the  task  of  translating  these  units 
into  victory. 

To  get  at  the  procedure  you  must  first  have  some 
revelation  of  the  man,  his  personality  and  his  meth- 
ods. In  them  are  reflected  the  whole  process  by 
which  battle  is  made.  Know  them  and  you  learn 
what  costly  and  actual  experience  alone  can  teach — 
that  the  path  of  glory  is  paved  with  innumerable 
unromantic  and  lustreless  details,  and  that  the 
soldier  who  goes  forth  to  do  or  die  is  a  cog  in  a 
mighty  and  militant  machine. 

You  have  only  to  carry  the  analogy  with  com- 
merce one  step  further  to  discover  the  thing  that 
dominates  and  makes  possible  every  important 
American  co-operative  undertaking;  namely,  a  high- 
ly centralised  direction  vested  with  complete  author- 
ity. In  this  case  it  happens  to  be  the  Commander- 
in-Chief,  or,  in  plain  business  terms,  General  Mana- 
ger of  the  British  Armies,  Unlimited. 

Disclose  the  Haig  make-up  and  you  also  reveal 
the  human  stuff  that  leads  the  forlorn  hope.     It  is 


234  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

the  universal  fibre  of  the  British  soldier.  The 
moral  of  it  is  that  you  can  not  get  away  from  that 
ancient  maxim :  "Like  officers,  like  men." 

To  the  human  interest  historian  Haig  presents  a 
curious  paradox.  Ask  any  man  that  you  meet  cas- 
ually in  London  what  he  knows  about  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  the  British  Armies  and  he  will 
reply  at  once:  "Why,  he  is  a  great  soldier."  Press 
him  for  further  illuminating  facts  and  the  chances 
are  that  he  will  hesitate  and  then  say :  "The  fact  is, 
I  don't  really  know  any  more."  It  would  be  a  typi- 
cal experience  in  the  hunt  for  Haig  data. 

The  first  of  the  many  striking  things  about  Sir 
Douglas  Haig  lies  in  the  amazing  anomaly  that 
although  his  name  appears  every  day  in  millions  of 
newspapers  throughout  the  world  (he  signs  the 
daily  reports  of  British  operations  in  France),  he  is 
perhaps  the  least  advertised  factor  in  all  the  tre- 
mendous drama  that  he  directs.  When  you  meet 
him  you  discover  the  reason. 

He  is  the  personification  of  personal  modesty — 
not  the  professional  modesty  which  is  one  of  the 
surest  roads  to  publicity — but  a  deep-seated  and 
sincere  aversion  to  exploitation.  He  shuns  the  spot- 
light. 

I  have  talked  with  men  who  have  been  his  com- 
rades from  South  Africa  to  the  Somme.  Save  for 
the  most  superficial  information  they  know  nothing 
about  him  except  that  he  has  "made  good"  wherever 


A  VISIT  TO  SIR  DOUGLAS  HAIG  235 

he  has  been  put.  "He  doesn't  talk  much;  he  is  a 
Fifer,"  they  say. 

Right  here  you  get  the  first  ray  of  Hght  on  the 
Haig  reserve,  for  he  was  born  in  that  little  kingdom 
of  Fife,  where  courage  is  as  adamant  as  its  granite 
hills  and  whence  sprung  the  Clan  MacDuff,  fore- 
most fighters  of  a  fighting  race.  The  imperturb- 
ability of  those  brooding  hills  is  in  his  soul.  It  has 
helped  to  make  him  the  soldier  that  he  is. 

It  girded  him  with  the  strength  and  perseverance 
to  lead  the  famous  ride  to  the  relief  of  Kimberley; 
it  bore  him  through  the  historic  retreat  from  Mons ; 
it  sustained  and  fortified  him  when  he  rode  serenely 
down  the  shattered  line  of  Ypres  and  gave  life  and 
lift  to  one  of  the  most  brilliant  stands  that  military 
resistance  has  known.  Sir  Douglas  had  cut  his 
fighting  teeth  when  he  succeeded  Lord  French  as 
Commander-in-Chief  in  France. 

Despite  his  long  record  of  achievement  his  name 
was  far  from  being  a  household  word  like  that  of 
Kitchener  and  Roberts.  But  the  important  fact  was 
that  the  troops  knew  him,  knew  to  their  pride  and 
to  their  satisfaction  that  the  new  leader,  like  the 
old,  had  been  flame-tried,  and  not  found  wanting. 

I  like  to  remember  my  first  glimpse  of  the  Field 
Marshal.  It  came  after  unforgettable  days  and 
nights  with  armies  that  flirted  with  death  above 
and  upon  the  ground.  His  name  ran  like  a  strain 
up  and  down  the  line.  I  had  watched  troops  re- 
turning from  a  raid  that  had  netted  a  good  bag  of 


236  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

prisoners  and  heard  the  jubilant  officer  say:  "This 
will  be  good  news  for  the  Chief  at  G.H.Q."  It 
was  more  like  the  enthusiasm  of  a  football  player 
after  a  hard-won  game  than  the  satisfaction  which 
followed  a  desperate  dash  that  took  its  toll  of  youth 
and  blood.  But  it  was  typical  of  what  the  man  on 
the  job  thought  of  the  man  higher  up;  and  it  ex- 
pressed also,  I  might  add,  the  spirit  of  the  Eng- 
lish officer  who  looks  upon  war  as  a  great  adventure. 

And  so  it  came  about  that  after  a  vicarious  ap- 
prenticeship to  the  trade  of  war  I  came  upon  its 
master  workman.  It  was  a  brilliant  sunlit  winter 
day.  Behind  me  on  the  main  highways  I  had  left 
the  endless  ammunition  trains,  the  trailing  squad- 
rons of  motor  trucks,  the  rattling  processions  of 
artillery — all  the  clatter  and  paraphernalia  of  war 
transport.  Only  the  boom  of  guns  still  pounded  in 
my  ears.  They  had  echoed  so  long  that  they  seemed 
part  of  the  very  noises  of  nature. 

We  turned  off  the  chief  artery  of  traffic  and  trav- 
elled for  miles  along  sequestered  ways.  Soon  a 
single  chateau  loomed  above  its  ivied  walls  and  al- 
most before  I  realised  it  we  had  run  the  gauntlet 
of  the  sentries  at  the  gate  and  had  brought  up  be- 
fore a  doorway  that  would  have  delighted  the  heart 
of  an  architectural  enthusiast. 

There  was  the  usual  courteous  greeting  so  in- 
stinctive with  the  British  officer  whether  you  wade 
up  to  him  through  the  mud  of  a  trench  or  meet  him 
amid  the  comforts  of  humane  habitation. 


A  VISIT  TO  SIR  DOUGLAS  HAIG   237 

In  France  all  the  headquarters  of  the  various 
British  armies  are  very  much  alike  in  that  they  are 
established  in  chateaux.  And  instead  of  being  com- 
mandeered, after  the  German  fashion,  they  are 
rented  and  paid  for  in  pursuance  of  the  laws  of 
decency  and  honour.  Whether  by  accident  or  de- 
sign, the  General  Headquarters  are  smaller  and 
more  unpretentious  than  any  of  the  others.  One 
reason,  perhaps,  is  that  Sir  Douglas  Haig  is  sur- 
rounded only  by  his  personal  staff;  the  other  officers 
who  comprise  his  field  cabinet  live  in  other  quarters. 

The  establishment  over  which  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  presides  is  practically  as  its  owners  left  it. 
A  few  years  before  laughing  children  had  played 
in  its  park  and  glad  voices  had  resounded  through 
the  rooms  that  stretched  behind.  Although 
now  an  outpost  of  war,  it  still  breathed  some  of  the 
gentle  atmosphere  of  peace.  The  continuous  jangle 
of  the  telephone  was  the  only  harsh  sound  that 
broke  what  seemed  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the 
ordinary  calm  of  a  well-ordered  French  country 
house.  Save  for  that  and  the  constant  movement 
of  officers  you  would  never  guess  that  from  within 
these  walls  issue  the  orders  that,  translated  into 
action,  are  changing  the  map  of  the  world. 

The  chateau  that  the  Commander-in-Chief  occu- 
pied prior  to  the  time  when  I  visited  him  was  even 
less  touched  by  war.  It  was  still  tenanted  by  the 
old  French  family,  whose  home  it  had  been  for  years 
and  who  inhabited  one  of  the  wings.    Hence  it  came 


2sS  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

about  that  in  those  soul-stirring  days,  when  the 
first  Somme  offensive  was  being  planned  and  exe- 
cuted, the  voices  of  children  running  up  and  down 
the  halls  mingled  with  the  incessant  murmur  of  the 
guns  and  the  work  of  that  devoted  band  of  men 
who  were  directing  one  of  the  most  stupendous 
operations  in  the  history  of  all  war. 

The  moment  you  enter  "G.H.Q."  you  feel  that 
you  have  established  a  contact  with  something  sig- 
nificant. I  do  not  mean  that  there  is  the  slightest 
tension,  but  whether  it  is  the  play  of  the  imagina- 
tion or  not,  you  acknowledge  an  authority  that  you 
have  never  felt  before.  It  is  the  unconscious  tribute 
you  pay  to  the  personality  that  dominates  the  place. 

The  desks,  maps  and  eternal  telephone  are  in 
sharp  contrast  with  the  ancient  furniture  and  works 
of  art  that  still  remain  in  the  house.  The  old  fam- 
ily portraits  look  down  solemnly  upon  you  from  the 
walls.  They  hear  and  see  strange  things  these 
strenuous  days — nothing  stranger  than  the  spectacle 
of  the  once  detested  English  in  the  role  of  defender 
of  the  invaded  and  beloved  France. 

I  sat  chatting  with  a  young  staff  officer  in  one 
of  the  small  anterooms  that  led  off  from  the  main 
hall.  His  telephone  bell  rang  incessantly.  Dur- 
ing the  lull  the  door  to  my  right  opened  and  re- 
mained open  after  a  military  secretary  had  passed 
out. 

I  looked  through  the  doorway  and  saw  a  tall, 
lithe,  well-knit  man  with  the  insignia  of  a  field 


A  VISIT  TO  SIR  DOUGLAS  HAIG  239 

marshal  on  his  shoulder  straps.  He  sat  at  a  plain, 
flat-topped  desk  earnestly  studying  a  report.  In  a 
moment  he  straightened  up,  pushed  a  button,  and 
my  companion  said  : — 

"The  Commander-in-Chief  will  see  you  now." 

I  found  myself  in  a  presence  that,  even  without 
the  slightest  clue  to  its  profession,  would  have  un- 
consciously impressed  itself  as  military.  Dignity, 
distinction  and  a  gracious  reserve  mingled  in  his 
bearing.  I  have  rarely  seen  a  masculine  face  so 
handsome  and  yet  so  strong.  His  hair  and  mous- 
tache are  fair,  and  his  clear,  almost  steely  blue  eyes 
catch  you,  but  not  unkindly.  His  chest  is  broad 
and  deep,  yet  scarcely  broad  enough  for  the  rows 
of  service  and  other  ribbons  that  plant  a  mass  of 
colour  against  the  background  of  khaki. 

The  Commander-in-Chief's  cavalry  training  sticks 
out  all  over  him.  You  see  it  in  the  long,  shapely 
lines  of  his  legs,  and  in  the  rounded  calves  encased 
in  perfectly  polished  boots,  with  their  jingle  of  sil- 
ver spurs.  He  stands  easily  and  gracefully,  and 
walks  with  that  rangy,  swinging  stride  so  common, 
oddly  enough,  to  men  who  ride  much.  He  was  a 
famous  fox  hunter  in  his  student  days  at  Oxford, 
and  never,  save  in  times  of  utmost  crisis,  does  he 
forego  his  daily  gallop.  To  him  the  motor  is  a 
business  vehicle,  never  meant  for  sport  or  pleasure. 
In  brief,  Sir  Douglas  Haig  is  the  literal  personifica- 
tion of  the  phrase  "every  inch  a  soldier." 

I  have  seen  most  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Allied 


240  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

Armies  in  this  war.  It  is  no  depreciation  of  any  of 
them  to  say  that  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
British  Army  is  the  best-groomed  and  most  soldierly 
looking  of  them  all.  He  has  none  of  the  paternal 
quality  which  impresses  you  the  moment  you  see 
Joffre;  he  is  smarter  and  more  alert  in  appearance 
than  Nivelle;  he  has  the  trim,  well-set-up  presence 
of  Pershing.  Amid  all  the  racking  burden  of  a 
super-responsibility,  he  remains  a  cheerful,  inter- 
ested human  being,  who  can  forget  in  the  distrac- 
tion of  lay  discussion  the  agonies  that  lurk  almost 
within  gunshot  of  his  residence. 

The  room  which  is  to-day  the  Capital  of  Brit- 
ish military  sovereignty  in  France  is  a  conventional 
drawing  room  which,  like  the  rest  of  the  house, 
maintains  practically  every  detail  of  the  original 
furnishing.  But  it  is  a  soldier's  workshop,  never- 
theless, and  with  all  the  working  tools. 

Chief  among  them  is  an  immense  relief  map  of 
the  whole  Somme  region.  It  rests  on  a  large  table 
just  behind  the  Field  Marshal's  desk.  Over  this  inert 
and  unresponsive  mass  of  grey-and-green  clay,  criss- 
crossed with  red  lines,  he  has  pondered  through 
many  a  wakeful  hour.  On  it  is  written  the  whole 
triumphant  story  of  that  great  advance  which  reg- 
istered a  new  glory  for  British  arms. 

I  could  not  help  thinking  as  I  sat  there  before  a 
blazing  fire  what  a  great  place  in  history  that  simple 
room  would  have;  how  in  years  to  come  it  would 
be  known  as  the  real  setting  of  the  decisive  phase 


A  VISIT  TO  SIR  DOUGLAS  HAIG  241 

of  the  Great  War  so  far  as  land  operations  are  con- 
cerned. We  spoke  of  many  things  that  winter  day 
in  France;  of  America,  of  world  politics,  of  the 
spiritual  aftermath  of  the  war — strange  contrast 
that  it  was  to  the  business  of  slaughter  that  raged 
around  us. 

His  voice  is  low  and  deep — almost  musical.  He 
is  as  sparing  of  words  as  he  is  of  men.  In  his  con- 
versation he  remmds  me  of  some  of  those  great 
American  captains  of  capital — men  like  Rogers, 
Ryan  and  Harriman,  who,  like  himself,  believed  in 
action  and  not  speech ;  men,  too,  who  minimised  the 
value  of  their  own  utterances,  and  who,  when  drawn 
out  of  the  shell  of  their  taciturnity,  disclosed  views 
of  force  and  originality. 

Like  many  men  of  great  reserve,  the  Field  Mar- 
shal v/ould  rather  face  the  jaws  of  death  than  an 
interviewer.  Indeed,  you  might  count  on  the  fin- 
gers of  one  hand  the  number  of  times  that  he  has 
actually  talked  for  publication,  and  then  have  some 
to  spare. 

Yet  this  quiet  man,  at  whose  command  the  very 
earth  trembles  with  passion  and  noise,  is  very 
human.  One  of  the  ironies  of  this  war  is  that  the 
most  inhuman  of  professions  is  directed  by  the  most 
human  of  men. 

He  asked  me  what  I  thought  of  the  work  of  the 
armies  in  the  field.  I  told  him  that  after  their 
efficiency,  morale,  and  splendid  team-work,  one  of 
the  things  that  impressed  me  most  was  the  youth 


242  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

that  I  saw  everywhere — a  rosy,  almost  radiant  youth 
that  walked  into  death  so  blithe  and  unafraid ! 

"Ah,"  he  said,  with  thrilling  enthusiasm,  "war 
to-day  is  a  young  man's  game.  It  is  a  war  of  youth 
and  it  takes  youth  to  win." 

I  spoke  of  the  many  men  who  had  risen  from 
the  ranks.  It  seemed  to  strike  a  responsive  cord, 
for  he  said  swiftly: 

"Yes,  it  is  very  true.  Every  man  in  this  war 
has  his  chance.  Efficiency  counts  above  all  other 
things.    You  cannot  afford  to  have  friends." 

In  this  connection  it  is  no  breach  of  confidence 
for  me  to  repeat  something  that  Sir  Douglas  Haig 
once  said  to  a  friend  of  mine  who  is  a  well-known 
English  editor  and  who  had  made  the  usual  com- 
ment on  the  extreme  youth  of  the  great  bulk  of  the 
British  Army.     Haig's  answer  to  him  was: 

"Why  wouldn't  a  soldier  be  young?  Would  you 
choose  men  of  forty  to  plan  a  championship  football 
game?  War  is  more  strenuous  than  the  fiercest 
football  game." 

I  was  with  Sir  Douglas  Haig  in  those  momentous 
days  when  America  broke  off  diplomatic  relations 
with  Germany  and  when  those  of  us  temporarily 
exiled  abroad  realised  that  the  time  had  at  last  come 
when  we  would  actively  take  our  place  in  the  line- 
up of  the  Great  Cause.  It  naturally  led  to  the  sub- 
ject of  what  war  had  done  for  the  overseas  people — 
and  this  meant  those  gallant  sons  of  empire  who 
had  heeded  the  call  of  the  mother  lioness  and  had 


A  VISIT  TO  SIR  DOUGLAS  HAIG  243 

left  bush  and  range  and  field  to  fight  in  far-off  lands. 

The  Commander-in-Chief's  face  kindled  with 
pride  as  he  said:  "War,  harsh  as  it  is,  is  also  the 
great  maker  of  men.  Take  the  Australian,  for  ex- 
ample. Every  one  knows  that  he  is  as  proud  as  he 
is  undisciplined.  Yet  war  has  made  him  a  trained 
and  disciplined  soldier,  and  more  than  that,  a  world 
citizen.  The  same  is  true  of  the  Canadian,  the  South 
African,  and  the  New  Zealander;  indeed  all  those 
intrepid  men  who  have  sacrificed  so  much  for  prin- 
ciple and  for  honour.  They  will  go  back  to  their 
homes  better  equipped  and  better  organised  for  the 
task  of  peace." 

Rash  prophecy  is  remote  from  the  Haig  scheme 
of  life.  Although  inarticulate  about  himself,  he  has 
always  favoured  the  frankest  publicity  about  his 
army  and  the  performance  of  his  men.  The  brief 
and  businesslike  reports  of  operations  that  emanate 
each  day  from  his  headquarters  (they  are  almost 
epigrammatic)  are  eminently  characteristic  of  the 
man  whose  name  they  bear. 

Yet  behind  the  unvarnished  statement  that   "a 

trench  was  taken  at "  often  lies  an  unwritten 

classic  of  courage — an  unheralded  epic  of  sacrifice. 

But  underneath  all  this  poverty  of  expression  lies 
a  mine  of  unexplored  human  material  whose  richest 
vein  is  the  real  personality  of  the  man  himself. 

War  has  raised  him  to  eminence  without  disclos- 
ing those  intimate  facts  which  are  so  necessary  to 
the  study  of  an  individual  and  his  achievement.  Be- 


244  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

cause  of  this  lack  of  published  information  no  less 
marked  in  Great  Britain  than  in  America,  it  seems 
worth  while  to  dwell  for  a  moment  on  the  story  of 
his  life.  It  will  help  you  to  understand  why  he 
has  travelled  so  far  and  how  he  has  welded  those 
hosts,  gathered  from  the  uttermost  ends  of  the 
earth,  into  a  coherent,  elastic,  ever-ready  and  de- 
pendable force  that  works  with  the  precision  of  the 
most  delicate  mechanism. 

Most  people  know  that  Haig  is  a  Fifer,  but  what 
most  people  do  not  know  is  the  very  illuminating 
fact  that  from  his  boyhood  he  aspired  to  be  a 
soldier.  This  ambition  took  definite  form  at  Ox- 
ford, where  he  was  a  student  at  Brasenose  College. 
He  was  never  the  "hail-fellow-well-met"  sort  of 
person.  Reserve  was  his  hall-mark.  But  he  was 
always  an  outdoor  man;  he  invariably  rode  a  big 
grey  horse  every  afternoon,  and  he  spent  all  his 
leisure  time  fox  hunting. 

In  those  days  to  be  an  officer  was  more  of  a  lux- 
ury than  a  real  profession  in  England.  The  country 
had  so  adapted  itself  to  the  buying  of  commissions 
that  when  a  man  regarded  the  Army  as  a  definite 
career  he  became  marked.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  as 
Haig  galloped  through  the  streets  of  Oxford  and 
across  the  lovely  countryside  that  lies  adjacent  he 
was  often  pointed  out.  His  colleagues  would  say: 
'There  goes  young  Haig.  He's  going  to  be  a 
soldier." 

Little  did  they  dream  that  the  fair-haired  boy 


A  VISIT  TO  SIR  DOUGLAS  HAIG   245 

who  sat  so  erect  in  his  saddle  would  lead  one  of  the 
greatest  armies  in  the  annals  of  military  endeavour 
and  that  he  would  be  the  inspiration  that  makes 
soldiering  a  sacred  calling. 

Then,  as  now,  Sir  Douglas  gave  the  impression 
of  a  great  store  of  latent  energy — of  reserved  vital- 
ity. Few  were  ever  deceived  by  his  quietness  into 
thinking  that  he  was  apathetic. 

His  first  military  experience  was  in  the  cavalry, 
which  he  has  always  loved,  and  his  initial  promo- 
tion came  from  gallant  service  on  the  hot  sands  of 
Sudan.  In  the  South  African  War  he  took  first 
rank  as  a  cavalry  leader.  He  had  so  many  narrow 
escapes  from  death  that  he  came  to  be  known  as 
"Lucky  Haig." 

As  you  analyse  the  Haig  personality  you  find  that 
he  has  an  amazing  insight — a  real  gift  of  construc- 
tive forecast.  His  appraisal  of  the  German  menace 
will  illustrate.  More  than  twenty  years  ago  he  went 
to  Germany  for  a  visit.  As  a  result  of  that  journey 
he  wrote  a  long  letter  to  Sir  Evelyn  Wood  that,  in 
the  light  of  the  bloody  events  of  the  present,  is  little 
short  of  uncanny.  A  friend  who  saw  that  letter  has 
summed  it  up  as  "one  of  practical  insight,  mastery 
of  detail,  shrewd  prophecy  and  earnest  warning." 
The  future  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  British 
Armies  in  France  was  convinced  then  of  the  inevi- 
tableness  of  a  conflict  with  the  Kaiser,  and  he  felt 
strongly  the  urgent  need  of  preparedness  for  that 
struggle  which  he  knew  would  up-root  all  Europe. 


246  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

But  his  warnings,  like  those  of  his  great  col- 
league, Lord  Roberts  in  England,  and  those  of  Gen- 
eral Leonard  Wood  of  America,  fell  on  deaf  and 
unheeding  ears.  I  cite  this  episode  merely  to  show 
that  Haig,  like  many  another  prophet,  was  without 
honour  in  his  own  land,  and  also  that  he  has  the 
quality  of  vision  which  is  the  indispensable  attribute 
of  every  leader  of  men. 

He  had  ample  opportunity  to  impress  his  execu- 
tive ability  as  Chief  of  Staff  in  India,  and  he  had 
just  begun  to  execute  some  of  his  striking  ideas  of 
training  as  commander  at  Aldershort  (England's 
great  military  camp)  when  the  Great  War  broke. 
He  was  in  at  the  beginning,  and  he  has  been  on 
the  firing  line  ever  since.  In  the  rack  and  agony 
of  those  first  fighting  months  he  saw  the  hideous 
harvest  that  unpreparedness  reaps. 

Of  those  two  heroic  Army  Corps — the  famous 
"First  Seven  Divisions" — that  Lord  French  took  to 
the  rescue  in  France  in  that  historic  August  of  1914 
(the  intrepid  array,  by  the  way,  that  the  Kaiser 
called  "the  contemptible  little  English  army")  Haig 
commanded  the  first,  which  included  much  of  the 
cavalry. 

From  Mons  to  Ypres  he  was  in  the  thick  of  bat- 
tle, never  depressed,  never  elated,  his  courage  and 
example  acting  like  a  talisman  of  strength  on  tired 
and  war-worn  troopers  who  fought  valiantly  against 
odds  the  like  of  which  had  hardly  been  recorded 
since  Thermopylae.     It  was  such  a  continuous  tale 


A  VISIT  TO  SIR  DOUGLAS  HAIG  247 

of  heroism,  in  which  the  humblest  Tommy  had  his 
full  share,  that  it  is  difficult  to  extract  a  single 
incident. 

Out  of  all  that  welter  of  work  and  fight  let  us 
take  one  story  which,  almost  more  than  any  other, 
reveals  the  grit  and  stamina  that  are  Sir  Douglas 
Haig's.  It  was  at  the  battle  of  Ypres,  when  that 
immortal  thin  line  of  British  khaki,  bent  but  not 
broken,  stemmed  the  mighty  German  avalanche  and 
blocked  the  passage  to  the  sea.  Outnumbered  more 
than  ten  to  one  in  some  places,  it  fought  with  that 
desperate  and  dogged  tenacity  which  has  always 
been  the  inheritance  of  the  British  soldier.  Every 
impromptu  trench  was  a  Valhalla  of  English  gal- 
lantry. Deeds  that  in  other  wars  would  have  stood 
out  conspicuously  were  here  merged  into  an  endless 
succession  of  deathless  glory. 

Lord  French,  the  Commander-in-Chief,  had  been 
down  to  the  front  line.  "We  can't  hold  out  much 
longer,"  said  a  colonel.    "It  is  impossible." 

"I  only  want  men  who  can  do  the  impossible,"  re- 
plied Lord  French.  "You  must  hold."  And  the  line 
held. 

To  the  right  of  Ypres  things  were  going  badly. 
The  deluge  of  German  shell  was  well-nigh  unbear- 
able. Even  the  most  heroic  courage  could  not  pre- 
vail against  such  an  uneven  balance  of  strength. 
The  cry  was  for  men,  and  yet  every  man  was  en- 
gaged. 

It  was  on  that  memorable  day — forever  unique  in 


248  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

the  history  of  British  arms — that  cooks,  servants 
and  orderHes  went  up  into  the  firing  Hne,  and  the 
man  who  exchanged  the  frying-pan  for  the  rifle 
achieved  a  record  of  bravery  as  imperishable  as  his 
comrade  long  trained  to  fight.  Still  the  lines  shook 
under  that  mighty  Teutonic  assault.  It  seemed  more 
than  human  endurance  could  possibly  stand. 

Meanwhile  Sir  Douglas  Haig  had  been  ordered 
into  the  shambles  with  the  First  Corps.  They 
manned  the  bloody  breach  and  won  for  all  time  to 
come  the  title  of  the  Iron  Brigade,  even  as  Haig 
himself  in  other  and  equally  strenuous  days  had 
gained  the  sobriquet  of  "Ironside."  The  old  metal 
rang  true. 

Now  came  the  event  which  bound  the  silent  Fifer 
to  his  men  with  bands  of  steel.  For  twenty-four 
hours  the  furies  of  battle  had  raged.  The  German 
bombardment  was  now  a  hideous  storm  of  dripping 
death.  The  Prussian  Guard  rose  like  magic  legions 
out  of  the  ground.  They  had  just  broken  through 
one  British  line  and  small  parties  of  khakied  troops 
were  in  retreat. 

Suddenly  down  the  Menin  road,  with  Ypres  sil- 
houetted behind  like  a  mystic  city  shrouded  with 
smoke,  rode  Sir  Douglas  Haig — trim,  well-groomed, 
serene,  sitting  his  horse  erect  and  unafraid,  and  with 
an  escort  of  his  own  Seventeenth  Lancers  as  per- 
fectly turned  out  as  on  peaceful  parade.  Overhead 
was  the  incessant  shriek  of  shells,  and  all  around 
carnage  reigned.     A  thrill  of  spontaneous  admirar 


A  VISIT  TO  SIR  DOUGLAS  HAIG  249 

tion  swept  those  tired  and  battered  troops,  for  the 
spectacle  they  beheld  was  as  unlike  war  as  night  is 
unlike  day. 

The  effect  of  that  calm  and  confident  presence  act- 
ed like  a  cooling  draught  on  a  parched  tongue.  It 
galvanised  the  waning  strength  of  the  gory  trenches; 
the  retreat  became  an  advance  and  the  broken  line 
was  restored.  Haig  had  turned  the  tide. 

I  have  seen  that  Menin  road  down  which  Haig 
rode  with  that  unuttered  message  of  faith.  Two 
years  had  passed,  but  it  was  still  the  highway  of 
death,  for  shrapnel  rained  all  around.  It  was  ac- 
cessible to  the  civilian  only  if  he  was  willing  to  take 
his  own  risk.  How  much  more  deadly  was  it  on 
that  day  when  the  blue-eyed  man  who  now  rules  the 
British  armies  in  France  gave  that  amazing  evi- 
dence of  his  disregard  of  danger!  I  thought  of  it 
then,  and  again  on  that  winter  day  when  I  sat  talk- 
ing with  him  amid  the  comparative  ease  and  com- 
fort of  General  Headquarters.  I  spoke  of  it  as  one 
of  the  superb  acts  of  the  war. 

The  Field  Marshal  merely  shrugged  his  shoulders 
and  said:  "It  was  nothing." 

A  few  days  after  the  event  that  I  have  just  de- 
scribed Haig  had  one  of  his  close  calls  from  death. 
A  German  shell  burst  in  the  midst  of  his  headquar- 
ters, and  nearly  every  one  of  his  staff  officers  was 
killed  or  maimed.  The  Field  Marshal  was  out  on 
a  tour  of  inspection  at  the  line.   "Lucky  Haig"  again. 

When  Haig  became  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 


250  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

British  Armies  in  France  it  seemed  the  logical  goal 
of  a  long,  stalwart  preparation — the  inevitable 
thing.  For  deep  down  under  the  Haig  character, 
and,  incidentally,  behind  his  distinguished  achieve- 
ment, are  two  shining  qualities — patience  and  per- 
severance. He  has  never  hesitated  to  do  what  we 
in  America  call  "spade  work."  It  is  sometimes 
prosaic,  but  it  is  usually  effective. 

Contradictory  as  it  may  seem  when  you  consider 
his  Scotch  ancestry,  there  must  somewhere  be  a 
touch  of  the  Oriental  in  Sir  Douglas  Haig.  I  mean, 
of  course,  that  phase  of  his  character  which  finds 
expression  in  persistent  and  methodical  prepared- 
ness. His  whole  career  is  literally  a  dramatisation 
of  an  ancient  Moslem  proverb  which  reads, 
"Patience  is  the  key  to  Paradise." 

Take  the  first  Somme  offensive.  Nothing  could 
express  the  Haig  idea  better.  For  months  everybody 
knew  that  the  "Big  Push"  was  booked.  There  were 
many  times  during  the  lull  that  preceded  the  ad- 
vance when  men  less  cautious  would  have  loosed  the 
dogs  of  war  that  tugged  so  hard  at  the  leash.  But 
the  Field  Marshal,  with  that  super-patience,  waited 
until  the  last  and  most  minute  detail  was  ready. 
Then  he  shot  his  bolt  and  it  went  home.  It  was  a 
triumph  of  the  readiness  which  is  the  basic  princi- 
ple of  the  Haig  creed. 

What  is  known  as  the  "Haig  nibble"  is  another 
conspicuous  example  of  his  technique.  In  this  war 
the  open  engagement  is  the  rare  exception.     After 


A  VISIT  TO  SIR  DOUGLAS  HAIG  251 

the  first  few  months  it  developed  into  a  trial  by 
trench — a  wearing-down  process.  "Attrition"  is 
what  the  experts  call  it.  Nothing  could  suit  the 
Field  Marshal's  temperament  better.  A  method  of 
campaign  that  would  discourage  most  commanders 
and  lead  them  to  indiscretion  has  made  it  possible 
for  him  to  push  steadily  and  stolidly  on. 

This,  then,  is  the  type  of  man  who  sits  at  the 
flat-topped  desk  at  General  Headquarters  with  his 
finger  on  that  battle  pulse,  responsive  to  its  re- 
motest quiver.  The  marvel  of  motor,  telegraph  and 
telephone  enables  him  to  be  in  constant  touch  with 
every  unit  of  his  command.  Follow  him  through 
his  day's  work  and  you  see  how  the  war  game  is 
played — a  war  that,  having  tested  the  resource  and 
the  resiliency  of  all  Europe,  has  now  extended  its 
dread  domain  beyond  the  reaches  of  the  Atlantic 
to  the  shores  of  America.    It  is  the  Titanic  task ! 

And  when  this  moving  picture,  more  animated 
than  any  imaginative  play  ever  thrown  upon  cinema 
screen,  has  passed  before  you,  you  realise,  even  be- 
fore a  single  shot  is  fired,  that  dynamic  energy  and 
organisation  of  the  highest  order  have  been  tested 
to  a  well-nigh  incredible  extent. 

Since  the  Commander-in-Chief  himself  is  the  in- 
carnation of  systematic  labour,  it  follows  that  the 
daily  procedure  of  that  modest  establishment  which 
he  rules  "somewhere  in  France"  is  efficient  and 
effective.  Taking  its  cue  from  the  top,  it  lets  noth- 
ing disturb  the  tenor  of  its  way.     Triumph  or  dis- 


252  THE  BlTSINESS  OF  WAR 

aster  are  treated  just  the  same.  The  unflinching 
discipHne  which  binds  the  head  of  the  armies  to  his 
closest  colleagues  has  made  possible  a  consistent 
and  unwavering  progress  of  the  war. 

Every  morning  at  nine  o'clock  Sir  Douglas  Haig 
is  at  his  desk,  and  from  that  time  until  the  lunch- 
gong  sounds  he  is  in  conference  with  the  heads  of 
those  various  branches  of  the  service  whose  efforts 
comprise  the  total  of  war  operations.  Upon  his 
desk  are  heaped  the  reports  of  everything  that  hap- 
pened the  night  before.  A  raid  on  forty  yards  of 
trench  many  miles  away  may  reveal  information 
of  utmost  importance  to  the  whole  army.  Thus  the 
office  becomes  a  clearing  house  of  information,  and 
out  of  it  emerges  the  news,  grave  or  cheering,  that 
is  flashed  to  a  waiting  world,  and  likewise  those 
more  significant  commands  whose  execution  malces 
history. 

The  process  of  assembling  and  assimilating  all 
the  news  of  that  extended  front  is  reduced  to  a  very 
simple  science.  This  is  because  each  army  unit  has 
its  own  headquarters — a  replica  in  every  detail  of 
the  general  establishment.  The  difference  between 
these  lesser  headquarters  and  the  chief's  is  that  at 
the  former  must  be  handled,  in  addition  to  actual 
fighting  and  flying,  the  terrific  task  of  providing 
food  and  ammunition,  ambulance  and  hospital  re- 
lief, remounts  and  renewal  of  rank  and  personnel. 

The  mystery  of  close  and  continuous  contact  be- 
tween the  Allied  armies  is  easily  explained.     It  is 


A  VISIT  TO  SIR  DOUGLAS  HAIG   253 

accomplished  by  means  of  what  is  known  as  a 
liaison  officer,  or  group  of  officers.  They  are  pre- 
cisely what  this  French  word  means — a  connection. 
There  is  a  French  mission  or  Liaison  with  all  Brit- 
ish commands,  and  vice  versa.  Through  this  me- 
dium all  communication  is  made,  and  all  news  of 
operations  transmitted.  It  is  swift,  simple  and 
direct 

So,  too,  with  that  monster  agency  of  devastation 
— the  modern  battle.  Go  behind  the  scenes  and  you 
find  that,  like  every  other  detail  of  the  war,  it  is 
merely  a  matter  of  systematic,  calculating  detail.  It 
is  like  a  super-selling  campaign  conducted  by  the 
best  organised  business  concern  in  the  world. 

In  former  days,  when  wars  were  decided  by  a 
single  heroic  engagement,  armies  stood  on  their  arms 
for  hours  before  battle  while  the  commander  rode 
up  and  down  the  lines  giving  the  men  cheer  and 
encouragem.ent.  To-day  the  comm.ander  who  tried 
that  trick  would  last  about  two  consecutive  seconds, 
because  the  long  arm  of  artillery  which  has  annihi- 
lated distance  would  also  wipe  him  out. 

Instead,  the  Commander-in-Chief  remains  many 
miles  behind  the  front,  bound  to  it  by  every  means 
that  instant  communication  devises.  He  has  before 
him  photographs  of  every  inch  of  enemy  ground, 
taken  by  aviators.  The  wonderful  thing  about  this 
battle  planning  is  that  by  means  of  these  aerial  pic- 
tures it  is  possible  to  keep  the  panorama  of  battle- 
ground up  to  the  very  minute.     In  winter,  for  ex,- 


254  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

ample,  a  fall  of  snow  will  greatly  alter  the  whole 
situation.  But  the  aerial  photographer  gets  around 
this  by  making  a  series  of  pictures  that  shows  the 
enemy  trench,  before,  during  and  after  the  snow- 
fall. 

The  plan  of  a  great  campaign  like  the  Somme  is 
built  out  of  months  of  preparation  and  conference. 
The  Commander-in-Chief  decides  on  the  general 
scheme,  while  the  specific  tasks  are  assigned  for 
execution  to  the  various  army  commanders.  In 
other  words,  every  chief  and  the  men  under  him 
have  a  particular  job  to  do  and  it  is  up  to  them  to 
do  it.  The  total  of  these  jobs,  some  of  them  re- 
quiring months  of  solid  effort,  comprise  the  offen- 
sive. War  nowadays  is  a  series  of  so-called  of- 
fensives enlisting  millions  of  men  and  ranging  over 
hundreds  of  miles  of  front.  It  is  devoid  of  thrill; 
you  never  see  a  flag;  it  is  literally  the  hardest  kind 
of  plain,  every-day  toil. 

As  you  watch  the  organisation  of  the  British 
armies  in  France  unfold  you  become  more  and  more 
impressed  with  their  kinship  with  Big  Business  as 
we  know  it  in  America.  Like  Andrew  Carnegie, 
Sir  Douglas  Haig  leans  on  experts.  He  assumes 
that  a  man  who  has  devoted  a  large  part  of  his  life 
to  a  specific  task  knows  all  about  it,  and  is  to  be 
trusted.  He  has  gathered  about  him,  therefore,  a 
group  of  keen,  alert  and  live-minded  advisers.  Some 
of  them  served  their  apprenticeship  in  other  wars; 
others  have  been  swiftly  seasoned  in  the  present 


A  VISIT  TO  SIR  DOUGLAS  HAIG  255 

struggle.  They  represent  the  very  flower  of  ser- 
vice and  experience.  It  is  a  remarkable  company — 
these  men  who  move  so  noiselessly,  who  work  so 
loyally,  who  keep  incessant  vigil  with  war. 

There  is  still  another  link  with  business.  In  many 
large  commercial  establishments  in  the  United 
States  you  find  a  so-called  Suggestion  Box.  Into 
it  the  humblest  employe  may  drop  a  suggestion  for 
the  improvement  of  the  business.  It  ranges  from  a 
plan  for  a  more  methodical  arrangement  of  office 
stationery  to  a  whole  new  system  of  time  and  labour 
saving  machinery.  In  many  cases  prizes  are  offered 
for  the  best  suggestions  made  during  the  year. 

There  is  no  such  box  at  General  Headquarters, 
but  its  informal  substitute  is  the  meal-table,  where 
both  civilian  and  soldier  have  free  play,  not  only  to 
inquire  about  the  branch  of  service  in  which  they 
are  most  interested,  but  to  make  any  suggestions 
that  may  be  born  of  observation.  No  recommenda- 
tion is  too  modest  or  too  far-fetched  to  have  the 
serious  and  courteous  consideration  of  the  kindly 
man  who  sits  at  the  head  of  the  table. 

Nor  is  all  the  talk  of  shop.  War  is  subordinated 
to  the  less  ravaging  things  that  are  happening  out 
in  the  busy  world,  where  there  is  no  rumble  of 
guns,  no  clash  of  armed  men,  and  where  life  is  not 
one  bombardment  after  another.  And  sometimes, 
too,  there  is  talk  of  those  haunts  and  homes  across 
the  sea  where  brave  hearts  yearn  and  where  the 
agony  of  war  suspense  is  no  less  searching  than  at 


256  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

the  fighting  front.    They  also  serve  who  wait  alone, 

into  every  detail  of  daily  life  at  General  Head- 
quarters the  Field  Marshal's  character  is  impressed. 
After  lunch,  for  example,  he  spends  an  hour  alone, 
and  in  this  period  of  meditation  the  whole  fateful 
panorama  of  the  war  passes  before  him.  When  it 
is  over  the  wires  splutter  and  the  fierce  life  of  the 
coming  night — the  Army  does  not  begin  to  fight 
until  most  people  go  to  sleep — is  ordained. 

This  finished,  the  brief  period  of  respite  begins. 
Rain  or  shine,  his  favourite  horse  is  brought  up  to 
the  door  and  he  goes  for  a  ride,  usually  accom- 
panied by  one  or  two  young  stafif  officers.  I  have 
seen  Sir  Douglas  Haig  galloping  along  those  French 
roads,  head  up,  eyes  ahead — a  memorable  figure  of 
grace  and  motion.  He  rides  like  those  latter-day 
centaurs — the  Australian  ranger  and  the  American 
cowboy.    He  seems  part  of  his  horse. 

Home  from  the  ride,  there  are  more  conferences. 
Then  dinner  with  its  lighter  but  always  instructive 
talk  and  its  relief  from  the  strain  of  work. 

You  have  seen  the  picture  of  the  average  week- 
day at  the  nerve  centre  of  the  British  Army  in 
France.  Now  drop  in  on  Sunday.  The  telephone 
still  jingles,  the  typewriters  click,  there  is  the  same 
movement  of  orderlies  to  and  fro,  the  usual  suc- 
cession of  conferences.  But  there  is  one  other  per- 
formance worthy  of  the  day  and  eminently  typical 
of  the  keen-eyed  Scotchman  who  is  the  repository 
of  so  much  British  hope  and  fear. 


A  VISIT  TO  SIR  DOUGLAS  HAIG  257 

At  10  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  long  grey  motor 
with  its  tiny  British  flag  is  at  the  door — (it  is  the 
only  car  at  the  front  carrying  this  insignia) — the 
Commander-in-Chief  steps  inside  and  is  whirled  off 
to  the  little  Presbyterian  church,  where  he  sits  with 
his  brother  officers  and  men  and  hears  good  old- 
fashioned  Scotch  orthodoxy  preached  by  a  "padre" 
as  they  call  the  army  chaplain.  The  weather  is 
never  too  bad  or  the  pressure  of  those  multitudinous 
reports  for  Sir  Douglas  Haig  to  miss  a  Sunday  ser- 
vice. This  devotion  to  the  creed  of  his  fathers  is 
just  one  other  evidence  of  the  character  of  the  fair- 
haired,  blue-eyed  soldier  who  is  Pershing's  chief 
brother-in-arms. 

That  modest  establishment  somewhere  in  France 
is  early  to  bed  but  more  than  one  guest  at  General 
Headquarters  on  the  way  to  his  chamber  has  passed 
the  office  of  the  Commander-in-Chief  and  seen  him 
— a  silent,  aloof,  almost  lonely  figure — leaning  over 
a  map  and  beginning  the  nightly  wrestle  with  the 
great  problem  that,  reaching  out  from  the  friendly 
house  amid  the  trees,  affects  the  destiny  and  safety 
of  the  whole  world. 

In  that  closing  picture  is  the  revelation  of  Haig 
the  Man  and  Soldier.  His  personality  is  the  con- 
centrated sum  of  patient,  persistent  and  untiring 
effort.  Lacking  the  brilliancy  of  spectacular  na- 
tures it  combines  those  elements  of  stamina  and  per- 
severance that  rear,  in  the  end,  the  impregnable  bul- 
wark of  confidence  and  success. 


XI — England's  War  Efficiency  Engineer 

WHEN  you  strip  away  the  glamour  from 
the  Great  War  and  analyse  the  larger  re- 
sults you  find  that  nothing  achieved  so 
far  is  of  more  permanent  value  to  the  future  than 
the  infusion  of  business  methods  into  the  conduct 
of  Governments.  Just  as  the  war  itself  is  organised 
and  operated  upon  a  huge  commercial  basis  so  have 
the  Cabinets  become  Clearing  Houses  for  the  best 
business  brains.  The  hands  that  have  moulded  in- 
dustry now  shape  the  destinies  of  nations.  Sales- 
manship has  succeeded  Statesmanship. 

Never  before  in  all  history  has  there  been  such  a 
shaking  up  of  dry  administrative  bones.  The  pro- 
fessional European  politician,  born  to  office,  is  in 
the  main  a  vanishing  type;  his  "pull"  is  a  lost  art. 
There  is  a  definite  reason.  The  billions  consumed 
on  the  fiery  altar  of  the  stupendous  conflict  demand 
employment  by  men  trained  to  the  fiscal  task,  while 
the  gearing  of  railways  and  industries  to  the  titanic 
needs  requires  a  specialised  preparation  for  the  co- 
lossal readjustments  of  peace. 

In  no  Allied  country  have  business  talents  been 
so  completely  commandeered  as  in  England.  With 
the  exception  of  Premier  Lloyd  George,  Mr.  Bal- 
four and  a  few  other  seasoned  office-holders,  the 
Cabinet  is  a  Board  of  Directors  recruited  from  in- 

258 


Copyright  Photograph   by  J.  Russell  &  Sons. 


SIR  ERIC  GEDDES 
England's  War  Efficiency  Engineer 


ENGLAND'S  WAR  ENGINEER       259 

dustrial  pursuits  that  could  sit  on  any  problem  of 
overhead  cost  and  distribution  that  came  up.  In 
addition,  practically  every  important  war  activity 
is  either  dominated  or  controlled  by  men  who  left 
their  desks  and  counting  rooms  to  become  Drive- 
wheels  of  the  Mighty  Machine  of  War. 

If  this  Commercialisation  of  Government,  as  it 
might  be  called,  had  begun  in  the  United  States  no 
one  would  have  been  surprised.  Business  is  instinct 
with  us.  The  fact  that  it  was  bom  amid  the  hide- 
bound traditions  of  British  Statesmanship  makes  it 
one  of  the  many  miracles  of  a  war  of  miracles. 
Nor  does  any  single  fact  more  eloquently  proclaim 
Britain's  determination  to  be  a  tremendous  indus- 
trial factor  when  the  war  is  over. 

The  evolution  was  interesting.  When  England 
went  into  war  almost  over-night  she  had  a  Govern- 
ment composed  of  professional  statesmen.  Save 
only  Bonar  Law,  a  retired  steel  master,  who  was 
Colonial  Secretary,  a  post,  by  the  way,  which  did 
not  call  for  a  vast  amount  of  commercial  training, 
there  was  not  a  single  man  of  practical  business 
experience  in  the  Cabinet.  Not  until  Viscount — 
then  Lord — Northcliffe  exploded  his  famous  bomb- 
shell about  the  lack  of  high  explosives  which  jolted 
Kitchener  from  his  pedestal  and  led  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Ministry  of  Munitions  did  the  Govern- 
ment draw  the  recruits  from  commerce  about  its 
standard. 

The  Ministry  of  Munitions  therefore  represents 


26o  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

the  corner-stone  of  the  Business  Bulwark  that  the 
Empire  has  reared.  Lloyd  George  was  the  first  Min- 
ister of  Munitions.  He  was  not  a  business  man, 
but  he  knew  how  business  affairs  should  be  con- 
ducted. He  knew,  too,  that  America  had  built  her 
industrial  supremacy  on  close-knit  and  scientific  or- 
ganisation. He  did  what  Andrew  Carnegie  or  any 
other  man  of  that  type  would  do.  He  mobilised 
the  Schwabs,  the  Edisons,  the  Henry  Fords,  and 
the  Westinghouses  of  the  Kingdom  and  made  them 
his  fellow-workers. 

From  every  corner  of  the  Empire  he  drafted 
experience.  He  wanted  workers  without  stint  so  he 
started  a  Bureau  of  Labour ;  he  needed  publicity  so 
he  launched  an  Advertising  Department;  to  compete 
successfully  with  the  Germans  he  knew  that  he 
would  have  to  employ  every  inventive  resource  that 
his  country  could  command,  so  he  founded  an  In- 
vention and  Research  Bureau;  he  saw  that  the 
shirker  and  the  slacker  were  still  abroad  in  the 
land  so  he  unfurled  the  Union  Jack  in  every  mill 
and  took  over  the  control  of  British  Industry;  finally 
with  his  Munitions  Act  he  conscripted  the  workers 
at  forge  and  furnace  into  an  industrial  army  that 
was  practically  under  martial  law.  He  slashed  red 
tape  and  he  injected  red  blood,  into  the  Arteries  of 
Government. 

Such  was  the  real  beginning  of  the  business  con- 
duct of  the  war  so  far  as  the  British  end  was  con- 
cerned.   The  startling  results  produced  by  the  Min- 


ENGLAND'S  WAR  ENGINEER       261 

istry  of  Munitions  convinced  Lloyd  George  that  the 
business  man  was  one  of  the  nation's  chief  assets — 
an  asset  which  should  be  capitalised  to  the  very  last 
degree.  When  he  suggested  to  Mr.  Asquith  and  to 
his  other  colleagues  in  the  Government  the  necessity 
for  what  amounted  to  a  commercialisation  of  war 
procedure  he  was  met  with  the  argument  that  "too 
many  business  men  would  spoil  the  Government." 

The  little  Welshman  bided  his  time.  When  he 
became  Premier  in  December,  1916,  he  startled 
England  with  a  Cabinet  that  represented  the  real 
business  leadership  of  the  Kingdom.  Since  that 
time  the  nation  has  taken  steady  toll  of  its  com- 
mercial genius  until  to-day  the  control  of  national 
affairs  and  more  especially  the  domination  of  the 
three  great  Agencies  of  War,  Food  and  Finance  are 
almost  entirely  in  the  hands  of  men  who  had  spent 
their  previous  lives  doing  nothing  more  stirring  or 
patriotic  than  rolling  up  great  fortunes  in  railroads, 
shipping,  banking  or  manufacture  of  some  kind. 

Premier  in  this  Government  by  Business  is  Sir 
Eric  Geddes,  who  is  the  Lloyd  George  of  the  New 
Era.  He  is  England's  War  Efficiency  Engineer. 
"Let  Geddes  Do  It"  is  the  slogan  of  imperial  dis- 
tress. 

In  less  than  two  years  and  at  the  age  of  forty- 
two,  Geddes  has  become  a  Prop  of  Government. 
There  are  many  people  of  England  to-day  who  be- 
lieve that  he  has  more  than  a  fifty-fifty  chance  to  be 
Prime    Minister.     If    this    happens — and    nothing 


262  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

seems  impossible  in  this  war — it  would  represent 
the  very  last  word  in  Commercialised  National  Con- 
trol. 

What  is  the  explanation  of  Geddes?  The  answer 
lies  in  the  fact  that  first,  last  and  always  he  is  a 
business  man.  He  has  regarded  every  one  of  the 
many  difficult  problems  put  up  to  him  since  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war  merely  as  a  business  proposition, 
applied  his  training  and  experience,  and  made  good. 
This  is  the  formula  of  what  is  commonly  regarded 
as  the  most  spectacular  personal  success  of  the  war. 

When  I  first  met  Geddes  he  sat  at  an  obscure  desk 
in  a  small  office  in  the  Armament  Building.  It  was 
in  19 1 5  and  the  Ministry  of  Munitions  was  in  the 
making.  Although  he  was  the  highest-paid  railway 
official  in  England  he  was  practically  unknown  out 
of  his  own  field.  When  I  last  talked  with  him  he 
was  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  the  post  vacated 
by  Churchill  and  Carson  in  succession,  and  all 
Britain  hailed  him  as  glorified  Life-Preserver.  He 
had  galvanised  the  whole  British  munition  output; 
he  had  put  the  British  Military  Railways  in  France 
on  the  map;  he  had  reorganised  the  Admiralty  on 
a  business  basis  and  was  facing  the  toughest  of  all 
his  tasks — the  suppression  of  the  submarine  pest. 

In  Geddes  the  Lloyd  George  history  repeats  itself. 
For  the  first  two  years  of  the  war  the  present  Prime 
Minister  was  shunted  into  every  national  emergency 
whether  it  was  a  coal  strike  in  Wales,  a  snarl  among 
the  Allies  or  the  unravelling  of  some  Governmental 


ENGLAND'S  WAR  ENGINEER       263 

tangle.  He  went  from  post  to  post  until  he  reached 
the  top.  Geddes  is  now  the  Super-Minute  Man, 
ready  to  jump  into  the  breach  at  the  first  sound  of 
the  fire  alarm.  In  the  American  vernacular  he  is 
always  there  "with  the  goods."  You  have  only  to 
take  a  survey  of  his  life — it  is  as  swift  and  stirring 
as  a  movie-film — to  understand  why  he  has  been 
able  to  register  every  time.  The  approach  to  his 
star  part  in  Business-Managing  the  Empire  is  an 
animated  sermon  on  how  to  succeed. 

Geddes  was  bom  in  India  of  Scotch  parents,  who 
returned  to  the  Mother  Country  when  he  was  very 
young.  Being  Scotch,  he  is  thrifty  with  everything 
but  his  own  energy.  He  practically  ran  away  from 
home  when  he  was  seventeen.  His  father,  con- 
vinced that  he  would  come  back,  gave  him  a  check 
for  $75  to  be  used  for  his  return  passage.  When  he 
got  to  New  York  (he  went  in  the  steerage  of  an 
Allan  liner)  he  mailed  back  the  check  saying  in  one 
of  his  characteristically  brief  letters:  "I  think  it 
will  do  me  good  to  go  on  my  own." 

Unlike  most  of  the  heroes  of  human  interest 
romances  he  had  more  than  the  traditional  fifty 
cents  in  his  pocket.  To  be  exact  his  fortune  was 
ten  dollars.  His  first  job  was  as  typewriter  sales- 
man in  New  York.  Then  he  drifted  to  Pittsburg, 
worked  at  the  Homestead  Steel  Works  for  a  dollar 
and  a  half  a  day  and  finally  landed  as  section  hand 
on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  in  West  Vir- 
ginia.    The  engineer  in  charge  of  the  gang  was 


264  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

L.  F.  Lx)ree,  who  later  became  president  of  the  road. 

For  a  time  the  section  worked  near  a  small  sta- 
tion called  Nicolette.  The  converted  freight  car 
used  as  a  lodging  house  by  the  labourers  and  which 
Geddes  now  calls  his  first  Pullman,  stood  on  a  sid- 
ing nearby.  In  his  odd  moments  Geddes  began  to 
study  train  despatching  and  telegraphy.  His  teacher 
was  the  station  agent,  a  kindly  Irish  woman,  whose 
sweetheart  was  the  section  foreman.  In  exchange 
for  instruction  he  "passed"  the  trains  for  her,  that 
is  officially  signalled  them  by,  while  the  agent  was 
out  with  her  young  man.  When  she  finally  mar- 
ried him  Geddes  got  her  position  as  station  agent. 
Thus  the  future  First  Lord  of  the  British  Admiralty 
and  a  possible  Prime  Minister  of  Great  Britain 
flashed  signals  and  even  switched  cars  for  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  trains  at  an  obscure  point  in  West 
Virginia. 

Geddes  was  big,  brawny  and  restless.  He  wanted 
to  see  America  so  he  went  to  Alabama,  worked  as 
a  timber  "jack"  and  learned  the  lumber  business  at 
first  hand.  When  he  was  twenty-one  he  sailed  off 
to  Australia,  rode  the  range  as  a  sheep  herder  and 
turned  up  a  year  later  in  India,  where  he  took  root 
for  the  time.  His  knowledge  of  railroading  gained 
in  America  enabled  him  to  become  foreman  of  a 
gang  of  coolies  building  a  light  railway  through  the 
jungles.  The  moment  he  touched  light  railway  con- 
struction he  reached  the  work  that  was  to  qualify 
him  in  later  years  as  a  master  war  wager.    In  five 


ENGLAND'S  WAR  ENGINEER       265 

years  he  was  Traffic  Manager  of  Rohilkund  and 
Kumaon  Railway.  After  this  Hfe  for  Geddes  was 
just  one  continuous  promotion.  He  seemed  to 
find  the  magic  key  and  all  doors  opened  to  him. 

Some  of  the  .Indian  stockholders  in  his  railway 
were  also  stockholders  in  the  North-Eastern  Rail- 
way in  England.  They  began  to  write  home  about 
the  construction  wizard  who  had  dropped  into  their 
midst.  The  English  stockholders  soon  got  the  im- 
pression that  he  was  too  valuable  a  man  to  be  wasted 
on  Oriental  jungles.  At  Simla  one  Wednesday 
Geddes  got  an  offer  by  cable  to  come  to  the  North- 
Eastern.  On  the  following  Saturday  he  was  on  his 
way.    This  is  the  Geddes  system  of  doing  things. 

The  North-Eastern  is  one  of  the  richest  roads  in 
England.  It  skirts  the  humming  Midlands  and  taps 
an  immense  coal  and  iron  area.  Geddes'  first  job 
was  as  Chief  Goods  Manager,  which  corresponds 
with  a  General  Freight  Agent  on  an  American  road. 
Geddes  at  once  had  the  inspiration  that  would  come 
to  any  wide-awake  American  traffic  official.  He 
decided  to  promote  industry  along  his  line.  No  one 
had  ever  thought  of  this  in  England  before.  In  the 
face  of  considerable  opposition  from  the  Board  of 
Directors  he  established  the  office  of  Industrial 
Manager.  The  result  was  increased  revenue  and 
growing  goodwill. 

Now  came  one  of  those  curious  freaks  of  fate 
that  bob  up  so  often  in  the  lives  of  men  of  action. 
Geddes  got  an  offer  to  operate  an  Argentine  rail- 


266  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

way  at  a  salary  that  seemed  fabulous.  He  took 
it  up  with  the  North-Eastern  people  and  while  they 
could  not  meet  the  South  American  proposition  they 
agreed  to  pay  him  what  was  then,  and  what  re- 
mains, the  highest  salary  ever  paid  a  railway  official 
in  Great  Britain.  If  Geddes  had  accepted  that  Ar- 
gentine offer  the  chances  are  that  to-day  he  would 
be  the  king-pin  among  South  American  railway 
operators  instead  of  being  a  leading  figure  in  the 
drama  of  the  Great  War. 

When  the  war  broke  out  Geddes  was  Deputy  Gen- 
eral Manager  of  the  North-Eastern.  The  General 
Manager  was  practically  a  figure-head  so  Geddes 
was  really  head  of  the  system.  He  wanted  to  do  his 
war  bit  so  he  went  to  the  War  Office  in  September, 
19 14,  and  said: 

"You  haven't  any  trained  railway  troops  in 
France  and  I  think  you  will  need  them." 

"No  thank  you,"  said  the  War  Office,  "we  can 
manage  very  well." 

That  was  before  business  sense  had  dawned  on 
the  War  Office.  It  was  the  first  of  a  long  series  of 
blunders  with  men  and  materials  that  cost  the  Em- 
pire dearly. 

Eric  Geddes  is  not  easily  discouraged.  He  re- 
turned to  York,  which  is  the  centre  of  the  North- 
Eastern  system,  and  raised  a  railway  battalion  out 
of  his  employes.  He  became  their  Lieutenant  Col- 
onel and  the  unit  became  part  of  the  Pioneer  and 
Sapper  Division  of  the  Royal  Engineers.     It  was 


ENGLAND'S  WAR  ENGINEER       267 

Geddes  who  helped  to  lay  out  a  large  part  of  the 
trench  system  which  comprises  part  of  the  coast 
defence  in  the  North  of  England. 

It  was  impossible  for  Geddes  to  keep  out  of  the 
war  game.  Destiny  was  working  in  his  direction 
and  it  manifested  itself  in  the  shape  of  a  message 
from  Kitchener,  who  asked  him  to  come  to  the  War 
Office.  These  two  big  and  outstanding  personalities 
had  known  each  other  in  India.  The  first  thing  that 
K.  of  K.  said  was  this : 

"I  am  not  happy  about  the  railway  situation  in 
France.  There  is  too  much  congestion  of  supplies 
and  material.  Can  you  go  over  and  straighten 
things  out  ?" 

"Of  course,"  replied  Geddes.  *T  can  start  to- 
morrow." 

But  Geddes  did  not  start  to-morrow.  The  Red 
Tape  Octopus  squeezed  out  Kitchener's  scheme,  and 
Geddes  had  to  go  back  to  his  railway  battalion.  For 
the  second  time  England  turned  down  the  man  on 
whom  she  now  leans  so  heavily, 

Geddes  besought  his  Board  of  Directors  to  get 
him  into  the  war.  *Tf  you  tender  my  services  per- 
haps they  will  be  accepted,"  he  said. 

The  Chairman  went  to  the  Government,  saying: 
"We  know  we  have  a  big  man  in  Geddes  and  he  is 
wasting  his  time  training  men."  But  the  Govern- 
ment still  remained  deaf.  The  old  hostility  of  the 
dyed-in-the-wool  regular  for  the  civilian  stood  pat. 

Once  more  Kitchener  sent  for  Geddes.    This  time 


268  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

the  War  Lord  was  in  the  North  and  Geddes  joined 
him  on  his  private  car  at  Newcastle. 

"I  am  uneasy  about  munitions,"  said  Kitchener. 
"Can  you  come  in  and  help  us?" 

Geddes  had  become  accustomed  to  offering  his 
services  to  the  Government  so  he  made  the  usual 
assent,  to  which  the  Secretary  of  State  for  War  re- 
sponded : 

"If  no  Munitions  Department  is  established  I 
want  you  to  come  with  me  to  the  War  Office." 

While  Kitchener  was  arranging  to  fit  Geddes  into 
his  scheme  of  things  the  Northcliffe  exposure  about 
shell  shortage  broke  like  a  storm  over  England. 
When  it  subsided  Lloyd  George  sat  at  a  desk  in  an 
office  down  in  Whitehall  as  Minister  of  Munitions. 
With  a  stroke  of  the  pen  the  British  Government 
had  created  a  whole  new  Ministry  that  was  in  many 
respects  the  very  Hope  of  Empire.  But  this  De- 
partment existed  on  paper.  Lloyd  George  had  to 
translate  it  into  a  going  concern  and  do  it  in  a  hurry. 
He  had  never  heard  of  Geddes,  but  his  name  was 
handed  to  him  in  a  list  of  men  eligible  for  work 
with  him. 

Three  days  later  Geddes  and  Lloyd  George  met 
for  the  first  time.  It  was  an  historic  meeting  be- 
cause from  that  hour  on  the  war  was  to  give  each 
one  a  tremendous  opportunity  which  was  to  be  capi- 
talised to  the  very  last  degree. 

"What  can  you  do?"  asked  Lloyd  George  in  his 
brief  and  abrupt  fashion. 


ENGLAND'S  WAR  ENGINEER       269 

"I  have  no  technical  knowledge  of  shell  making, 
but  I  can  get  things  done,"  replied  Geddes. 

"All  right,"  rejoined  the  little  Minister,  "you 
will  have  every  chance." 

In  May,  191 5,  Geddes  was  made  Deputy  Director 
General  of  Munitions,  and  took  over  the  production 
of  rifles,  small  arms,  optical  instruments,  transport 
vehicles,  machine  guns  and  salvage.  It  was  Geddes 
who  first  began  to  retrieve  empty  shell  cases  and 
through  a  system  of  careful  transportation  made  it 
possible  for  the  government  to  use  brass  cartridge 
cases  at  least  a  dozen  times.  He  was  one  of  the 
Fathers  of  Salvage. 

In  six  weeks  he  had  his  whole  machine  going  at 
full  tilt.  England  suddenly  found  herself  bang  up 
against  a  serious  munitions  problem.  Millions  of 
empty  shell  cases  were  coming  in  from  America. 
These  cases  had  to  be  filled ;  otherwise  they  were  so 
much  inert  and  ineffective  metal.  All  the  while  the 
cry  across  the  waters  from  France  was  "Munitions 
and  Still  More  Munitions."  British  guns  stood  im- 
potent before  the  German  avalanche  of  steel. 

Geddes  saw  that  no  munitions  task  was  quite  so 
important  as  getting  these  millions  of  shell  cases 
filled.  So  he  annexed  the  job.  It  meant  more 
work  for  him,  but  one  of  his  chief  traits  is  that  he 
is  a  glutton  for  work. 

Factories  had  to  be  built  or  adapted  and  an  army 
of  workers  recruited  and  trained.  To  give  you 
some  idea  of  the  technical  difficulties  of  shell  filling 


270  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

let  me  say  that  there  are  exactly  sixty-four  items — 
that  is  sixty-four  component  parts — in  filling  a  sin- 
gle eighteen-pounder  shell.  Men  and  women  had 
to  be  taught  the  care  and  use  of  deadly  explosives. 
It  meant  the  establishment  of  a  whole  new  school 
of  labour. 

Geddes  turned  on  the  full  current  of  his  dynamic 
energy.  He  assumed  control  of  the  Royal  Ordnance 
Factories  at  Woolwich,  Waltham  and  Enfield.  Be- 
fore the  leaves  on  the  French  hillsides  turned  red 
and  brown  that  fateful  autumn  British  batteries 
were  hurling  back  shell  for  shell  in  every  bombard- 
ment that  the  German  artillery  made.  The  whole 
British  offensive  of  September  191 5  was  due  al- 
most entirely  to  the  fact  that  Geddes  had  stimulated 
the  output  of  the  shell  filling  factories  and  had  put 
live  and  up-to-date  American  business  co-ordination 
behind  the  men  and  the  machines. 

The  astonishing  parallel  in  the  advancement  of 
Lloyd  George  and  Geddes  now  became  marked. 
When  Kitchener  went  to  his  death  on  the  "Hamp- 
shire" and  Lloyd  George  succeeded  him  as  Secre- 
tary of  State  for  War  the  first  question  he  asked 
when  he  took  his  new  desk  was : 

"Is  Geddes  free?" 

Geddes  was.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  man  that 
he  never  permits  a  job  to  master  him.  He  does  the 
conquering.  Part  of  his  administrative  creed  is  to 
organise  his  work  so  thoroughly  that  it  can  run 
without  him.    This  is  the  reason  why  he  has  always 


ENGLAND'S  WAR  ENGINEER       271 

been  able  to  act  as  First  Aid  when  the  Hurry-up 
Call  came.  Lloyd  George  therefore  found  him  ready 
for  a  new  demonstration  of  his  many-sided  talents. 

Like  his  lamented  predecessor,  Lloyd  George  was 
worried  about  the  railway  situation  in  France.  He 
was  getting  the  shells  across  the  channel  but  the 
shells  were  not  getting  up  to  the  men  fast  enough. 
The  battle  of  the  Somme  had  proved  that  England 
had  all  the  ammunition  she  needed,  but  as  the  armies 
went  forward  the  railways  behind  did  not  keep  pace. 

"Are  you  sure  that  the  French  railways  can  carry 
all  the  traffic  ?"  asked  Lloyd  George. 

"No,  I  am  not,"  replied  Geddes. 

"Then  make  an  investigation  and  report  to  me," 
was  the  injunction  from  the  War  Secretary. 

Geddes  went  to  France  in  mufti  and  made  one  of 
his  swift  and  searching  appraisals  of  the  transporta- 
tion system.  Here  he  was  on  his  chosen  ground. 
He  saw  ammunition  being  man-handled;  to  use  his 
phrase,  "the  stuff  was  bogged."  Being  a  railway 
man  he  realised  that  the  best  and  quickest  way  to 
get  shells  up  to  the  fighting  men  was  on  light  rail- 
ways, which  could  be  laid  down  or  repaired  over 
night.  He  went  back  to  Lloyd  George  and  summed 
up  his  recommendation  in  a  single  sentence  which 
was: 

"We  must  have  light  railways  that  can  follow 
the  guns  as  they  smash  the  way  up  the  line." 

On  the  spot  Lloyd  George  made  him  Director  of 
Military  Railways  at  the  War  Office.     The  very 


272  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

next  day  Field  Marshal  Sir  Douglas  Haig,  whom 
he  had  met  during  his  investigation,  offered  him  the 
post  of  Director  General  of  Transportation  in 
France.     He  wired  back : 

*T  have  just  accepted  post  of  Director  of  Mili- 
tary Railways  at  the  War  Office." 

Haig  immediately  telegraphed : 

"Take  both  posts." 

Geddes  accepted  both  positions  and  now  began  a 
remarkable  career  as  a  dual  personality  that  is 
without  precedent  in  all  war  history.  As  Director 
General  of  Transportation  in  France  he  had  to 
requisition  himself  as  Director  of  Military  Rail- 
ways at  the  War  Office  for  all  the  materials  used 
in  the  field.  For  once  the  Consumer  could  find  no 
fault  with  the  Producer.  They  were  one  and  the 
same  person. 

Geddes  began  the  work,  which  dramatised  all  his 
previous  experience  and  put  him  in  the  War  Hall 
of  Fame.  He  found  the  railways  in  France  con- 
gested; the  rolling  stock  broken  down  under  the 
terrific  drive  for  food,  troops  and  ammunition;  the 
rails  and  road-bed  showing  the  effect  of  the  inces- 
sant wear  and  tear.  He  faced  a  colossal  and  mo- 
mentous job  of  reconstruction  because  the  railways 
m'eant  life  or  death  and  traffic  could  not  be  inter- 
rupted for  a  single  hour.  It  was  like  rebuilding  a 
Terminal  like  the  Grand  Central  Station  in  New 
York  City  without  interfering  with  the  operation 
of  a  train.     Geddes  turned  the  trick. 


ENGLAND'S  WAR  ENGINEER        273 

He  got  his  whole  task  down  on  paper  first.  He 
built  a  pyramid  with  himself  as  Director  General  of 
Transportation  at  the  apex  and  divided  it  into  four 
main  Divisions.  One  was  Organisation  of  Forces; 
the  second  was  Technical  and  dealt  with  Equip- 
ment, Extensions  and  all  allied  activities ;  the  third 
was  purely  Statistical,  while  the  fourth  had  to  do 
with  Construction.  He  called  this  his  Organisation 
and  Liaison  Chart  because  every  one  of  these 
branches  was  literally  married  to  the  other.  It  was 
this  close  and  constant  team-work  that  won  out. 

In  working  out  his  organisation  Geddes  did  a 
very  characteristic  thing.  He  said  to  the  Army 
Council  in  substance:  "If  J  am  to  be  Director  Gen- 
eral of  Transportation  I  must  be  master  of  all  the 
highways."  He  therefore  took  over  the  control  of 
the  net-work  of  inland  waterways  which  included 
all  the  canals  of  Northern  France.  Hundreds  of 
thousands  of  tons  of  freight  and  thousands  of 
wounded  men  move  up  and  down  their  winding 
way  each  month, 

Geddes  had  to  use  the  French  roads  to  haul  his 
supplies.  They  were  in  bad  shape  from  the  inter- 
minable movement  of  men,  food,  munitions  and 
supplies  so  he  became  their  custodian.  Thus  to  his 
growing  activities  he  now  added  road-making.  He 
reorganised  the  French  quarries  and  moved  the 
broken  stone  direct  from  hillside  to  steam  roller. 
He  kept  the  roads  in  repair  with  battalions  of  nav- 
vies that  he  brought  over  from  England. 


274  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

Not  content  with  all  this  he  reached  out  and  an- 
nexed the  domain  of  Docks  and  Dock  Engineer- 
ing. This  work  was  formerly  under  the  wing  of 
the  Army  Service  Corps.  Geddes  established  a  De- 
partment responsible  for  the  repair  and  up-keep  of 
all  the  Docks.  This  was  a  very  essential  work  be- 
cause delays  in  the  coming  and  going  of  supply 
ships  would  interfere  with  the  Lines  of  Food  Com- 
munication in  the  field. 

Being  a  disciple  of  centralisation  Geddes  farmed 
out  the  responsibility  for  the  huge  job  that  he  had 
cut  out  for  himself.  At  the  head  of  each  Depart- 
ment he  placed  a  Director,  who  became  the  Geddes 
of  that  particular  Branch  whether  it  was  Roads, 
Docks,  Transportation,  Light  Railways  or  Inland 
Water  Transport. 

Before  long  Geddes  was  a  Dictator  with  an  Em- 
pire all  his  own.  He  had  to  have  a  suitable  capital 
so  he  planted  his  flag  just  outside  the  little  town 
which  will  always  be  famous  as  the  General  Head- 
quarters of  the  British  Armies  in  France.  Here  he 
built  a  remarkable  group  of  offices.  Technically 
they  are  called  Transportation  Headquarters,  but 
in  the  popular  history  of  the  war  they  will  always 
be  known  as  Geddesburg, 

These  offices  are  really  a  community  group.  The 
central  structure  is  so  arranged  that  the  moment 
you  enter  you  can  look  down  a  long  hall  and  see  a 
succession  of  signs  that  not  only  indicate  every 
man's  office  but  his  job.    These  offices  are  arranged 


ENGLAND'S  WAR  ENGINEER       275 

in  order  of  seniority.  The  first  therefore  is  that 
of  the  Director  General  of  Transportation.  Next 
comes  the  Deputy  Director  General  of  Transporta- 
tion and  so  on.  One  value  of  this  arrangement 
is  that  a  man  can  see  at  a  glance  just  the  office  he 
is  seeking  because  the  function  of  that  office  is  re- 
vealed at  the  same  time.    It  saves  time  and  temper. 

At  the  outset  of  his  experience  in  France  he  was 
wise  enough  to  call  to  his  aid  a  group  of  trained 
regular  soldiers  who  knew  military  requirements 
and  who  were  familiar  with  conditions  in  the  field. 
He  once  explained  his  reason  by  saying:  **The 
trained  soldier  can  do  the  soldier's  job  better  than 
any  one  else.  For  an  expert  job  you  must  get  ex- 
perts and  let  them  alone."  I  might  add,  in  passing, 
that  this  is  the  simple  little  rule  upon  which  North- 
cliffe  has  reared  the  structure  of  his  whole  success 
with  newspapers  and  magazines. 

Since  his  job  was  reconstruction  Geddes'  first  and 
foremost  difficulty  lay  with  raw  materials.  How  to 
get  them  was  the  problem  because  the  head  of  every 
other  Army  and  Navy  activity  was  moving  heaven 
and  earth  in  a  mad  effort  to  obtain  wood  and  steel. 
He  had  decided  that  light  railways  would  save  the 
whole  Supply  and  Ammunition  situation.  In  order 
to  feed  them  he  knew  that  the  broad-gauge  lines 
Avould  have  to  be  increased  on  a  large  scale.  He 
further  realised  that  to  get  new  equipment  for  both 
light  and  standard  gauge  systems  was  out  of  the 
question  in  the  brief  time  at  his  command.   He  de- 


276  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

termined  to  follow  the  line  of  least  resistance.  His 
campaign  therefore  resolved  itself  into  getting  new 
light  railway  material  from  mill  and  factory  and 
drafting  part  of  the  existing  standard  gauge  equip- 
ment from  the  going  British  railroads. 

The  first  of  these  propositions  was  a  simple  mat- 
ter of  making  contracts  and  following  them 
through.  The  second  bristled  with  troubles.  All 
the  railways  in  the  United  Kingdom  were  under 
military  control,  to  be  sure,  but  to  commandeer  roll- 
ing stock  and  tracks  was  little  short  of  confiscation 
even  under  drastic  war  regulations. 

Geddes  decided  to  use  diplomacy.  He  knew  he 
had  to  "sell"  the  British  railway  managers  on  the 
proposition  of  giving  up  part  of  their  equipment 
so  he  invited  them  to  come  to  France  and  see  the 
army  in  action  and  go  over  the  whole  railway  sys- 
tem. Practically  none  of  these  men  had  been  in  the 
zones  of  the  armies.  They  came,  they  saw,  and 
they  were  conquered  by  Geddes.  They  went  back 
home  convinced  that  the  Director  General  of  Trans- 
portation ought  to  have  everything  he  asked  for. 
When  he  demanded  hundreds  of  locomotives  and 
thousands  of  freight  cars  and  hundreds  of  miles 
of  actual  track  he  got  them. 

It  meant  literally  taking  up  a  whole  railway  sys- 
tem in  England  and  laying  it  down  in  France.  This 
is  why  you  see,  as  you  travel  along  the  French  Lines 
of  Communication  to-day  North-Eastem  locomo- 
tives hauling  London  and  South  Western  trucks  on 


ENGLAND'S  WAR  ENGINEER       2.'J7 


tracks  that  formerly  gridironed  the  Midland  Sys- 
tem.   It  helps  to  make  the  Tommy  feel  at  home. 

By  getting  a  ready-made  standard  gauge  railway 
system  Geddes  was  able  to  go  straight  ahead  with 
the  light  railway  construction.  Once  more  he  did 
a  characteristic  thing.  "If  we  are  to  build  rail- 
roads they  must  be  built  by  seasoned  railroad  men," 
he  said.  He  knew  that  the  railways  in  Canada  had 
blazed  their  iron  way  through  virgin  land  and  that 
as  a  result  the  Canadian  Pacific,  the  Canadian 
Northern  and  the  Grand  Trunk  had  marshalled  an 
army  of  builders  who  had  fought  flood,  gorge  and 
canyon.  He  recruited  this  host  of  construction 
pioneers  for  France  and  organised  them  into  the 
so-called  Canadian  Railway  Battalions.  At  their 
head  he  placed  a  game  and  grizzled  railway  contrac- 
tor, "Jack"  Stewart,  gave  him  a  major  general's 
commission  and  before  many  months  had  passed 
these  men  had  laid  down  hundreds  of  miles  of  light 
railways.  I  have  seen  them  within  forty  yards  of 
the  front  line  trenches. 

All  the  while  Geddes  was  doing  precisely  what 
James  J.  Hill  would  have  done  under  the  same  con- 
ditions. He  dug  out  the  vital  statistics  of  all  the 
lines  he  operated.  He  got  such  startling  facts  as 
demurrage  under  fire,  the  traffic  density  per  mile  in 
the  fighting  area,  the  time  consumed  for  unloading 
at  rail  head,  the  number  of  empty  cars  that  came 
back  to  the  Advanced  Supply  Depot — indeed,  every 
scrap  of  information  that  could  illumine  or  facili- 


278  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 


tate  operations.  Armed  with  these  statistics  he  es- 
tablished a  definite  schedule.  Every  car  had  to  be 
unloaded  within  a  prescribed  time  no  matter  if  it 
was  under  shell  fire  or  not ;  every  train  had  to  bring 
back  its  quota  of  material  for  salvage,  wounded 
men  or  troops  bound  for  the  Rest  Camps.  "No 
empty  hauls"  was  the  slogan  that  went  forth  from 
Geddesburg.  These  were  the  rules  for  the  standard 
gauge  line. 

Geddes  was  no  less  exacting  with  the  light  rail- 
ways. They  were  kept  to  an  iron-bound  regulation. 
More  than  this  he  drove  them  forward  with  an  un- 
ceasing labour  that  did  not  flinch  or  pause  in  the 
face  of  shot  and  shell. 

What  was  the  result  ?  When  the  Germans  made 
their  famous  "victorious  retreat"  in  the  Somme  in 
the  spring  of  191 7  the  railway  followed  right  be- 
hind them.  The  rear  guard  of  Haig's  pursuing 
army  could  hear  the  shriek  of  the  advancing  loco- 
motives as  they  steamed  along  the  freshly  lai  J  track. 
The  Iron  Horse  almost  trod  on  Tommy's  heels!  It 
was  a  triumph  of  the  Geddes  system  which  brought 
food,  equipment,  supplies  and  ammunition  right  into 
the  zone  of  actual  fighting. 

This  procedure  was  repeated  in  an  even  more 
dramatic  way  last  November  when  Byng  smashed 
his  way  behind  the  tanks  toward  Cambrai.  During 
these  stirring  operations  the  light  railways  were 
in  some  instances  apace  with  the  fighting  troops. 


ENGLAND'S    WAR   ENGINEER      279 

Without  them  the  advance  would  have  been  im- 
possible. 

From  this  bill  of  particulars  you  can  readily 
understand  how  and  why  Geddes  made  good 
in  France.  Six  months  after  he  established  himself 
at  Geddesburg  he  was  made  Inspector  General  of 
Transportation  for  all  the  theatres  of  war.  This 
made  him  the  traffic  king  of  the  British  armies 
everywhere.  Most  men  would  have  been  content 
with  this  full-sized  job.  But  England  had  taken 
Geddes'  measure  and  found  that  it  fitted  all  emer- 
gencies. The  time  had  come  for  him  to  move  on. 
He  took  the  next  round  of  the  service  ladder,  and 
in  a  way  that  was  little  short  of  sensational. 

With  the  Battle  of  Jutland  storm  clouds  began 
to  gather  over  the  British  Admiralty.  There  was 
no  dissatisfaction  over  the  fitness  of  the  Grand 
Fleet  but  a  growing  feeling  that  it  was  being  kept 
under  leash.  The  submarine  devastation  was  get- 
ting on  the  nation's  nerves.  A  strong  public  senti- 
ment c'systallised  in  the  shape  of  a  demand  that  the 
barnacles  be  scraped  away  from  the  hull  of  the  Ad- 
miralty and  that  the  good  old  ship  be  manned  with 
younger  and  redder  blood. 

Geddes,  who  meanwhile  had  become  Sir  Eric, 
was  put  upon  the  bridge.  He  was  made  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Board  of  the  Admiralty  with  the  rank 
of  vice  admiral  and  the  title  of  controller,  which 
went  back  to  the  time  of  Samuel  Pepys.  With 
characteristic  tenacity,  however,  he  maintained  his 


28o  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

post  as  Inspector  General  of  Transportation,  which 
carried  with  it  the  rank  of  major  general  in  the 
army.  Thus  he  maintained  the  integrity  of  his  dual 
personality,  because  he  became  the  only  civilian  in 
all  history  who  could  wear,  if  it  were  possible,  a 
Major  General's  and  a  Vice  Admiral's  uniform  at 
the  same  time.  The  wags  immediately  began  to 
suggest  that  he  appear  in  public  in  the  trousers  of 
one  service  and  the  coat  of  another. 

The  introduction  of  Geddes  into  the  Admiralty 
was  just  one  more  proof  of  the  urgent  need  of  the 
business  man  on  the  war  job.  He  knew  absolutely 
nothing  about  battle  ships,  cruisers,  torpedo  boat 
destroyers  or  ship  building,  but  he  did  know  the 
rules  of  the  business  game  and  how  to  get  things 
done.  He  dedicated  himself  to  hurrying-up  the 
ship-building  programme  and  to  the  production  of 
supplies  and  munitions  for  the  navy.  He  became, 
as  he  aptly  expressed  it  to  me :  "The  Wet  Minister 
of  Munitions."  As  a  side-line  he  joined  the  Ship- 
ping Control  Committee.  He  was  a  man  of  many 
tasks — the  Pooh  Bah  of  British  Public  Service. 

The  Admiralty  seethed  with  movement.  Here 
as  elsewhere  throughout  his  progressive  journey 
through  the  principal  war  posts  in  the  gift  of 
Britain,  he  adherred  to  the  plan  of  taking  his  own 
people  with  him.  This  is  a  typical  Geddes  perform- 
ance. The  man  trained  in  the  Geddes  school  knows 
him  and  his  methods.  When  he  takes  a  new  post 
they  enable  him  to  make  it  a  going  concern  at  once. 


ENGLAND'S  WAR  ENGINEER       281 

He  was  not  in  the  Admiralty  very  long  before  he 
installed  the  former  Secretary  and  Solicitor  of  the 
North-Eastern  Railway  as  Assistant  Secretary. 
Other  old  colleagues  followed.  The  civilian  had 
at  last  invaded  the  stamping  ground  of  the  sailor 
man  and  was  there  to  stay.  Geddes  gradually  built 
up  a  group  of  officials,  all  of  them  graduated  from 
the  railways  or  business  and  all  dedicated  to  the 
task  of  making  things  happen. 

If  you  know  Geddes  at  all  you  also  know  that  he 
is  not  the  type  of  man  likely  to  remain  in  a  subor- 
dinate place.  He  is  just  naturally  booked  for  the 
top.  When  the  dissatisfaction  over  what  was  con- 
sidered to  be  a  distinct  inability  to  solve  the  sub- 
marine problem  expanded  into  a  vigorous  national 
belief  that  Sir  Edward  Carson  as  First  Lord  of 
the  Admiralty  should  do  something  or  quit  the 
job  no  one  was  surprised  when  he  got  out  and  was 
succeeded  by  Sir  Eric  Geddes. 

The  one-time  section-hand  on  the  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  Railroad  was  now  in  the  office  that  made  the 
supreme  test  of  his  resources.  The  public  wanted 
action;  he  was  the  man  to  give  it  to  them.  Before 
he  was  in  office  two  weeks  he  knew  what  every  ship 
in  the  British  Navy,  from  gasolene  patrol-launch 
to  thirty-thousand  ton  super-dreadnaught,  was  do- 
ing. As  always,  statistics  were  his  weapon.  He 
believes  in  them  because  they  are  the  infallible  re- 
vealers  of  both  weakness  and  strength. 

He  proved  the  efficacy  of  his  theory  when  he 


282  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

made  his  first  important  speech  as  First  Lord  of  the 
Admiralty.  He  unloaded  such  a  fusillade  of  facts 
that  the  loudest  critical  guns  were  silenced.  To 
illustrate.  There  had  been  wide-spread  chagrin  over 
the  sinking  of  a  flotilla  of  neutral  vessels  from 
Scandinavia  convoyed  by  two  British  destroyers. 
They  were  surprised  and  sunk  in  the  North  Sea  by 
German  raiders.  The  British  people  very  naturally 
wondered  why  the  Grand  Fleet  did  not  hear  about 
this  attack  and  rout  the  raiders. 

The  First  Lord  asked  the  House  to  recollect  these 
facts:  That  the  area  of  the  North  Sea  is  140,000 
square  nautical  miles,  that  Britain  herself  has  a 
coast  line  of  568  nautical  miles  subject  to  attack 
by  raiders,  that  the  area  of  vision  for  a  cruiser 
squadron  with  its  attendant  destroyers  at  night  is 
well  under  five  square  miles.  Then  he  added :  "Five 
square  miles  in  140,000."  There  was  not  a  chirp 
about  that  North  Sea  action  when  he  got  through. 

When  you  meet  Sir  Eric  Geddes  you  understand 
very  soon  why  he  is  one  of  the  Over-Lords  of  Eng- 
land at  forty-two.  Physically  he  looks  the  part.  He 
is  deep  and  broad  of  chest,  wide  of  shoulder;  you 
can  see  the  muscles  of  his  arm  expand  under  his 
sleeves.  His  jaw  is  hard  and  unyielding,  his  mouth 
is  firm;  his  whole  being  incarnates  strength  of  body 
and  determination.  Despite  all  this  bone  and  sinew 
he  is  as  active  as  a  cat.  His  eyes  look  straight 
through  you.  He  keeps  fit  by  riding  horseback 
every  morning  before  breakfast. 


ENGLAND'S  WAR  ENGINEER       283 

I  once  asked  him  what  single  rule  had  been  of 
most  service  to  him.  Quick  as  a  flash  he  snapped 
out: 

"The  use  of  statistics.  I  statitise  everything. 
Knowledge  is  power  and  statistics  are  the  throttle 
valve  of  every  business.  But  don't  let  statistics 
master  you.  Use  them.  I'll  show  you  what  I 
mean." 

He  was  sitting  at  the  desk  of  the  First  Lord  of 
the  Admiralty.  He  pushed  a  buzzer  and  when  a 
secretary  appeared  he  said : 

"Get  me  the  statistics." 

In  a  few  moments  three  books,  made  like  loose- 
leaf  ledgers,  were  before  him.  One  was  brown, 
the  other  blue,  while  the  third  was  black.  He  picked 
them  up  in  succession,  saying: 

"This  brown  book  contains  a  catalogue  of  all  the 
Admiralty  stock ;  that  is,  a  list  of  every  ton  of  stuff 
we  own.  This  blue  book  is  the  register  of  the  per- 
sonnel of  the  navy  with  every  man's  record  up  to 
yesterday.  This  black  book  contains  the  account  of 
all  naval  operations  and  movements  since  the  war 
began.  Together  they  form  a  complete  library  of 
every  available  statistic  about  the  Admiralty.  In 
short  I  know  what  every  man  and  every  ship  is 
doing  and  just  where  they  are." 

Geddes  believes  that  running  a  war  is  just  like 
running  any  business.  "It  is  just  like  operating  a 
factory,"  he  said.     The  following  remark  made  to 


284  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

Lloyd  George  when  they  first  met  emphasises  this 
attitude : 

"Employ  the  men  in  warfare  on  the  job  in  which 
they  excelled  in  peace.  Then  you  will  have  no 
square  pegs  in  round  holes." 

The  maxim  by  which  he  ruled  his  men  in  France 
is  typical  of  their  Chief.    Summed  up  it  was: 

"Temper  justice  with  mercy  and  common  sense. 
Use  mercy  because  your  people  are  working  under 
fire;  employ  common  sense  because  you  must  not 
expect  them  to  do  the  impossible." 

The  best  tribute  that  I  ever  heard  paid  to  Sir 
Eric  Geddes  came  from  a  long-headed  Scotchman 
who  worked  with  him  on  the  North-Eastern,  who 
said :  "Capable  men  always  get  on  with  Geddes.  He 
attracts  the  best  to  him." 

Geddes  is  about  the  only  man  who  ever  turned 
Lloyd  George  down.  One  day  when  they  were  both 
in  the  Ministry  of  Munitions  his  Chief  sent  for 
him  and  demanded  certain  figures  at  once  about 
shell  output. 

"You  cannot  have  them  because  they  are  not 
ready,"  he  said. 

"But  I  must  have  them,"  said  the  Minister. 

"There  is  no  'must'  with  incomplete  statistics," 
replied  Geddes.  It  closed  the  incident  and  Lloyd 
George  had  to  wait.  I  cite  this  little  incident  to 
show  that  Geddes  never  goes  off  at  half-cock. 

When  I  last  talked  with  him  I  asked  him  to  give 
me  a  message  to  the  American  people  as  I  was  sail- 


ENGLAND'S  WAR  ENGINEER       285 

ing  for  New  York  the  next  day.  For  once  the 
answer  did  not  follow  hot  on  the  question.  "Give 
me  a  little  time,"  he  said.  That  night  I  received 
from  him  at  my  hotel  the  following  statement,  writ- 
ten in  his  own  hand : 

"My  message  to  your  great  nation  is: 

"Give  up  hoping  that  this  can  be  a  short  war. 
Plan  and  provide  for  an  ever  receding  duration  of 
at  least  two  years  more. 

"If  we  all  do  so,  peace  may  one  day  surprise  us. 
If  we  do  not  there  will  be  no  Peace  and  no  Free- 
dom, but  only  a  postponement. 

"There  must  be  no  postponement  and  no  *next 
time.' " 

In  this  message  Geddes  the  man  speaks  out  of  the 
years  of  contact  with  crash  and  crisis.  It  reveals 
rare  qualities  of  vision  and  statesmanship.  Yet  they 
were  born  of  business.  Analyse  the  late  J.  P.  Mor- 
gan in  the  light  of  the  Eric  Geddes  career  and  you 
realise  that  he  might  have  been  another  Bismarck 
or  Disraeli  had  he  gone  into  politics. 

Geddes  is  of  the  same  type. 


XII — Northcliffe — Insurgent 

ONE  day  toward  the  close  of  the  eighties  a 
boy — he  had  barely  passed  his  majority — 
set  up  an  editorial  establishment  in  a  tiny 
room  off  Fleet  Street  in  London  and  launched  a 
weekly  called  Answers.  He  wrote  the  first  issue 
himself.  Half  a  dozen  people  would  have  crowded 
the  modest  sanctum ;  five  hundred  dollars  was  a  for- 
tune to  its  youthful  ruler.  Yet  that  little  room  was 
the  obscure  outpost  of  the  most  militant  newspaper 
influence  that  the  world  has  ever  known;  the  self- 
starting  periodical  was  the  first  link  in  a  chain  of 
power  that  is  to-day  the  Reorganiser  of  Govern- 
ment, the  Mentor  of  Ministers,  the  Goad  of  Em- 
pire. It  has  been  a  dominant  factor  in  the  con- 
duct of  the  Great  War  so  far  as  Great  Britain  is 
concerned. 

For  the  boy  who  dreamed  of  editorial  power  in 
that  six-by-ten  ofiice  became  Viscount  Northcliffe, 
Colossus  of  British  Journalism.  History  presents 
-no  more  astonishing  or  romantic  spectacle  than  is 
afforded  by  this  man — now  barely  turned  fifty — 
who  has  vitalised  printed  expression  until  it  has 
the  force  and  meaning  of  a  national  message. 
Delane,  the  famous  editor  of  the  London  Times, 
was  a  sort  of  unofficial  trustee  of  the  English  peo- 
ple, confidante  of  cabinets,  inspired  newsgetter.  But 

286 


Photograph    by    Undcm'ood    &    Underzi'ood. 


THE  VISCOUNT  NORTHCLIFFE 
England's  Unofficial  War  Steward 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT        287 

Northcliffe  is  a  Premier  without  Portfolio.  Speak- 
ing with  a  million  tongues,  he  is  the  Watch-dog 
of  Administrations,  mightiest  of  all  the  Imperial 
Insurgents. 

Insurgent !  That  is  precisely  the  word  for  North- 
cliffe because  he  has  defied  all  tradition,  smashed 
all  precedent.  Herein  lies  the  first  secret  of  his 
success.  In  a  land  where  the  fashion  of  the  fathers 
is  the  rule  in  thought  and  deed,  he  literally  created 
a  new  school  of  mind  and  action.  He  is  more 
American  in  outlook  and  performance  than  any  of 
his  contemporaries. 

We  of  America  point  with  pride  to  sentiment 
swayed  by  the  press;  the  owner  of  the  Daily  Mail 
revolutionised  the  British  shell  output,  overthrew  a 
Government  that  was  believed  to  be  impregnable, 
forced  out  a  Prime  Minister  who  had  withstood 
three  years  of  war  ordeal.  All  this,  too,  with  a 
sense  of  personal  detachment  that  is  in  sharp  con- 
trast with  most  of  our  own  personally  conducted 
uplift  press  campaigns. 

Northcliffe  has  done  all  that  Greeley  or  Dana  de- 
sired, that  Pulitzer  planned,  that  Hearst  attempted. 
In  a  word,  he  is  the  successful  composite  of  what 
every  great  American  publisher  or  editor  wanted 
to  be.  Whether  he  is  a  crisis-monger,  merchant  of 
clamour  or  prophet  of  panic  and  depression  (as  his 
enemies  make  him  out)  or  whether  he  is  the  voice 
of  democracy,  safeguard  of  public  liberty,  cus- 
todian of  the  nation's  welfare  (as  his  friends  and 


288  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

supporters  attest)  one  fact  is  certain.  He  is  the 
livest  and  most  vital  human  entity  in  England;  a 
man  alternately  praised  and  damned,  who,  by  the 
vast  changes  that  he  has  wrought,  must  be  regarded 
as  the  Warwick  of  this  War.  H  he  lived  in  Ameri- 
ca he  would  be  a  President-Maker. 

I  have  seen  Northcliffe  in  many  moods;  been 
with  him  when  the  earth  shook  with  the  rumble  of 
guns;  in  the  quiet  of  the  English  coast,  where  the 
sea  beat  on  a  lonely  shore ;  on  the  newspaper  battle- 
ground of  London,  when  he  was  storming  the  cita- 
dels of  privilege  and  power.  Each  time  I  saw  some 
new  facet  in  his  nature,  found  some  fresh  mani- 
festation of  his  genius. 

Although  he  is  a  person  of  dazzHng  contrasts 
there  is  no  mystery  about  his  make-up  or  his 
methods.  Northcliffe  has  dramatised  a  prodigious 
personality  and  vivified  a  many-sided  resource.  He 
has  proved  that  a  publisher  with  initiative  and  com- 
mercial aptitude  can  make  a  group  of  newspapers 
not  only  an  irresistible  and  country-wide  force,  but 
a  very  profitable  enterprise  as  well. 

The  career  of  this  man — as  definitely  self-made 
as  Rockefeller  or  Edison — is  a  revelation  of  or- 
ganised efficiency  adapted  to  national  service  that 
is  not  without  its  significant  lesson  for  the  United 
States,  young  in  her  war  travail. 

There  must  have  been  a  splatter  of  ink  at  North- 
cliffe's  baptism.  With  conventional  biographical 
details  we  are  not  concerned,  although  it  is  worth 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT       289 

knowing  that  he  was  born  Alfred  Harmsworth; 
that  he  is  the  eldest  of  fourteen  children;  that  his 
father  was  a  brilliant  barrister,  and  that  he  him- 
self narrowly  escaped  exile  into  the  law;  that  his 
mother  to-day  has  the  peculiar  distinction  of  being 
the  only  woman  with  four  sons  in  Parliament — 
Northcliffe  and  Lord  Rothermere  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  Cecil  and  Lester,  both  Radicals,  by  the 
way,  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

Northcliffe  cut  his  magazine  teeth  when  he  was 
sixteen,  and  in  a  way  that  clearly  forecast  his  enter- 
prise. At  school  he  started  a  magazine.  It  was 
his  own  particular  idea.  Even  then — he  was  only 
fifteen — ^he  had  the  courage  and  optimism  which 
have  been  his  two  principal  assets.  In  the  first 
number  you  find  the  naive  announcement  that  was 
the  keynote  of  his  career.  It  read:  "I  have  it  on 
the  best  authority  that  this  paper  is  to  be  a  marked 
success."  Here  is  the  fore-runner  of  the  tidal  wave 
of  advertisement  that  has  made  the  names  of  the 
Northcliffe  newspapers  household  words. 

In  the  second  number  he  published  this:  "I  am 
glad  to  say  that  my  prediction  as  to  the  success  of 
the  magazine  proved  correct."  The  boy-editor  was 
the  father  of  the  coming  man-magnate.  Charac- 
teristic of  the  future  controller  of  the  Mail  was  the 
announcement  the  next  month  of  a  "Grand  Extra 
Double  Summer  Holiday  Seaside  Number  of  the 
Magazine." 

From  that  moment  Northcliffe  literally  splashed 


290  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

in  publicity.  The  touchstone  of  success  was  his. 
At  seventeen  he  was  editing  a  weekly  newspaper. 
Meanwhile  he  had  toured  the  continent  as  a  trav- 
elling secretary  and  divined  then  the  possibilities  of 
international  complications  of  which  he  warned  the 
world  so  persistently  for  many  years.  And  not  the 
least  of  these  warnings  was  about  the  menace  of 
war  with  Germany. 

When  anxious  fathers  come  to  Northcliffe  to- 
day and  ask  how  their  sons  should  commence  jour- 
nalism he  invariably  says:  ''The  best  possible  edu- 
cation, a  knowledge  of  French  and  a  period  of  initi- 
ation in  a  provincial  newspaper  office."  He  knows 
whereof  he  speaks  because  this,  in  a  nutshell,  was 
his  own  novitiate. 

His  provincial  apprenticeship  was  as  editor  of 
a  cycling  paper  at  Coventry.  Here  he  learned  the 
whole  newspaper  job  from  composing  room  to  edi- 
torial. Like  Ryan,  Eastman  and  Archbold,  he 
wanted  to  go  "on  his  own,"  so  in  his  twenty-first 
year  he  started  Answers.  Then,  as  now,  his  edi- 
torial impulse  was  to  provide  information. 

In  those  venturesome  days  Northcliffe  solved  at 
first  hand  the  vexatious  problem  of  distribution. 
He  personally  made  the  round  of  the  news-agents 
to  inquire  if  they  had  sufficient  copies  of  his  publi- 
cation on  hand.  To-day  exactly  fifty  thousand 
news-agents  handle  the  sixty  Northcliffe  magazines 
and  newspapers,  with  their  total  weekly  circulation 
of  twenty  millions,  which  have  grown  out  of  the 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT        291 

unpretentious  weekly  written  with  his  own  hand. 

At  twenty-two  Alfred  Harmsworth  was  a  suc- 
cessful man  of  affairs,  head  of  a  growing  business 
that  was  on  its  way  to  become  the  richest  publish- 
ing enterprise  in  the  world.  Long  before  he  turned 
thirty  he  had  a  string  of  nearly  two  score  publi- 
cations ranging  from  Comic  Cuts  to  the  London 
Magazine. 

Just  as  he  was  about  to  leave  his  strenuous  twen- 
ties, Northcliffe  took  his  first  plunge  into  daily 
journalism.  With  his  brother,  now  Lord  Rother- 
mere,  he  bought  the  Cinderella  of  London  news- 
paperdom,  the  Evening  News.  The  Conservative 
party  had  dumped  more  than  two  million  dollars 
into  it  without  result.  It  was  the  joke  of  the  pro- 
fession. Wags  of  the  Radical  press  amused  them- 
selves by  having  its  shares  sold  in  bushel  baskets, 
and  then  informing  the  world  that  they  had  brought 
a  few  cents  each.  Northcliffe  put  the  unerring 
probe  of  his  swift  insight  into  this  moribund  paper, 
diagnosed  its  trouble  as  lack  of  continuity  of  policy 
and  managerial  control,  and  in  less  than  six  months 
it  had  the  public  confidence  and  was  a  success. 

Northcliffe  was  now  rich;  he  was  booked  for  a 
baronetcy;  he  might  well  be  content.  But  his  rest- 
less energy,  coupled  with  consuming  ambition, 
spurred  him  on  to  the  spectacular  and  sensational 
creation  of  the  Daily  Mail. 

In  America  we  have  come  into  an  era  when  the 
afternoon  newspaper  is  the   swift,   rapid-fire  dis- 


292 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 


tributer  of  news,  with  a  constantly  increasing  fol- 
lowing. In  England  the  morning  paper  remains 
the  heavy  gun.  Northcliffe  had  long  cherished  the 
idea  of  a  morning  paper,  and  the  hour  arrived 
when  that  dream  was  to  be  realised — and  with  it  an 
up-rooting  of  the  whole  English  press-publicity 
field. 

With  the  Daily  Mail  Northcliffe  literally  hurled 
a  thunderbolt  into  the  serene  heaven  of  the  British 
reading  public.  To  understand  clearly  the  revolu- 
tion that  he  wrought,  you  must  first  know  that  up 
to  the  launching  of  the  Daily  Mail,  the  English 
press  was  ponderous  and  pontifical,  which  means 
that  it  was  dull  and  respectable.  The  editors  of 
the  so-called  "Great  Dailies"  were  aloof  and  in- 
accessible— mostly  "cave-dwellers" — who  lived  in 
antiquated  seclusion.  Contact  with  the  multitude 
was  a  coarse  and  vulgar  thing;  intercourse  with 
the  staff  was  by  letter  and  memorandum.  Report- 
ing had  become  a  rite;  there  was  no  stimulus  or 
reward  for  ambition  and  enterprise.  Papers  were 
supposed  to  be  written  "by  gentlemen  for  gentle- 
men." 

Northcliffe  changed  all  this.  But  first  he  did  a 
characteristic  thing.  Analyse  the  phenomenal  suc- 
cess of  the  Daily  Mail  and  you  find  that  it  was  due 
primarily  to  preparation  and  the  ceaseless  initiative 
of  the  founder.  It  is  an  illuminating  lesson  in 
readiness, 

Northcliffe  was  a  year  getting  ready.    The  fledg- 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT        293 

ling  paper  was  issued  daily,  almost  complete  in  every 
respect,  for  three  months  before  a  single  copy  was 
sold  to  the  public.  In  these  three  months  North- 
cliffe  was  scouring  the  world  for  men  (he  put  G.  W. 
Steevens  on  the  map),  appraising  material,  sound- 
ing tendencies,  getting  ready  to  deliver  a  thrust 
that,  when  delivered,  carried  conviction  and  knowl- 
edge. If  there  is  one  thing  above  all  others  that 
stands  out  in  Northcliffe's  life  it  is  thoroughness. 

The  Daily  Mail  was  geared  to  the  march  of 
events  and  became  an  animate  force.  It  "got  over" 
from  the  start  not  so  much  by  what  it  thought  as 
by  what  it  did.  It  was  the  first  important  half- 
penny morning  paper  in  Great  Britain — that  price 
itself  being  a  most  radical  departure.  Northcliffe 
paid  the  highest  wages  and  drew  about  him  the  best 
available  writers.  Under  his  regime  the  editor 
ceased  to  be  a  hermit,  the  reporter  became  an  es- 
sential cog  in  the  newspaper  machine.  He  made 
things  happen. 

The  Daily  Mail  was  an  immediate  sensation,  and 
it  has  never  got  out  of  the  habit.  Its  enemies  said 
that  Northcliffe  had  found  journalism  a  profession 
and  made  of  it  a  trade — that  he  had  basely  com- 
mercialised a  noble  calling.  They  quite  forgot  the 
fact  that  even  the  most  idealistic  altruism  fails  when 
it  is  not  put  on  a  box-office  basis. 

Regardless  of  party  affiliation,  most  of  the  Eng- 
lish journals  denounced  the  intruder,  predicting 
dire  failure.     To  quote  Northchffe:     "Newspaper 


294  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

warfare  is  very  like  trench  warfare.  Each  party 
sees  very  little  of  the  other.  Both  believe  in  gigan- 
tic enemy  losses !"  In  the  famous  coalition  against 
Northchffe,  however,  the  casualties  were  all  on  the 
other  side.  He  was  the  first  publisher  in  England 
to  have  a  circulation  of  a  million  for  a  daily. 

No  phase  of  the  development  of  the  Daily  Mail 
was  more  characteristic  of  the  Northcliffe  policy 
than  the  reproduction  of  the  London  edition  in 
replica  every  morning  two  hundred  miles  away  at 
Manchester.  The  whole  text  is  telegraphed  each 
night  over  private  wires  to  Manchester,  with  the  re- 
sult that  the  Mail  is  on  the  breakfast-table  at  Edin- 
burgh and  Aberdeen  and  other  remote  points  to 
which  it  is  rushed  by  special  trains,  at  the  same  mo- 
ment as  the  local  press.  The  same  feat  on  a  minor 
scale  is  duplicated  in  Paris  every  morning,  where 
the  Englishman  can  get  a  Daily  Mail — (Continen- 
tal Edition) — served  up  with  his  petit  dejeuner. 
With  this  stroke  Northcliffe  practically  wiped  the 
competition  of  English  newspapers  in  Paris  off  the 
map. 

Northcliffe  papers  succeed  because  they  radiate 
the  vitality  of  the  man  himself.  He  knows  what 
the  public  wants.  Since  public  taste  is  a  fickle  and 
sensitive  plant,  it  takes  real  genius  to  keep  pace  with 
its  moods.  After  his  famous  expose  of  the  shell 
shortage,  when  his  name  was  a  hissing  and  a  by- 
word, and  when  people  were  burning  his  papers  in 
the  streets,  he  knew  their  minds  better  than  they 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT        295 

did.  His  instinct  told  him  that  they  would  be  dis- 
satisfied with  the  conduct  of  the  Avar,  and  he  was 
proved  right.  As  usual  he  was  far  ahead  of  the 
times. 

The  world  knows  that  he  laid  bare  the  ammuni- 
tion deficiency  and  attacked  Kitchener's  short- 
sightedness. But  it  does  not  know  the  way  this 
historic  upheaval  was  precipitated.  I  tell  it  because 
it  reveals  the  very  mainspring  of  the  Northcliffe 
journalistic  machine. 

In  the  Times  Northcliffe  had  published  the  fact 
that  the  British  troops  in  France  were  impotent  be- 
fore the  German  guns  because  of  the  famine  of  high 
explosives.  The  Times  had  the  facts  and  spoke 
with  the  authority  of  confirmed  information. 
There  was  no  response  from  Government  or  pub- 
lic. It  takes  a  great  deal,  you  know,  to  stir  the 
British  mind.  So  Northcliffe  proceeded  to  give  it 
the  jolt  of  its  history. 

One  morning  in  May,  191 5,  the  telephone-bell 
rang  in  the  office  of  Thomas  Marlowe,  editor  of 
the  Daily  Mail,  at  Carmelite  House.  "The  Chief 
wants  to  see  you,"  was  the  message  that  came  over 
the  wire.  Northcliffe  is  simply  "Chief"  to  his  as- 
sociates. 

Marlowe  w^ent  up  to  the  high  book-lined  study 
with  its  fish  and  game  trophies  and,  for  all  that,  its 
distinct  suggestion  of  meditative  seclusion.  North- 
cliffe sat  deep  down  in  an  upholstered  chair,  his  big 
head  forward,  his  broad  shoulders  squared,  the  pic- 


296  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

ture  of  strength.  He  handed  Marlowe  a  manu- 
script, saying:     "Read  this." 

Marlowe  read  the  four  typewritten  pages.  They 
contained  the  now  famous  editorial:  "The  Trag- 
edy of  the  Shells — Kitchener's  Grave  Mistake." 

Marlowe  looked  up.  "Do  you  realise  that  this 
is  a  terrific  shock,  that  it  will  shatter  an  idol?"  he 
asked, 

"Yes,"  replied  Northcliffe  grimly;  "but  isn't  it 
true?" 

"Yes,"  was  the  answer.  And  the  editorial 
blazed  forth  the  next  morning,  kindling  a  fire  of 
abuse,  revolt,  indignation,  even  ostracism.  But  the 
Northcliffe  papers  stuck  to  the  task. 

The  result  was  the  Ministry  of  Munitions. 

When  Northcliffe  asked  Marlowe  the  question: 
"Isn't  it  true?"  he  disclosed  the  one  unfailing  test 
that  he  applies  to  every  cause  or  creed.  Most  Lon- 
don editors,  however,  ask,  "What  effect  will  this 
have?"  or,  "How  will  the  party  like  it?" 

With  a  concrete  incident  I  can  show  another  rea- 
son why  Northcliffe  and  his  ramified  interests  have 
forged  ahead.  He  once  met  a  sub-editor  in  the 
corridor  of  the  Daily  Mail  building  and  asked  him 
how  he  was  getting  along. 

"Splendidly,  thank  you,"  was  the  reply. 

"How  long  have  you  been  with  me?" 

"Six  months,  my  Lord." 

"What  money  are  you  getting?" 

"Seven  pounds  a  week," 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT        297 

"Are  you  happy  and  contented  ?" 

"Yes,  but  I  have  lots  of  leisure." 

"Then  you  are  not  the  man  for  me.  I  don't 
want  any  member  of  my  staff  to  be  happy  and  con- 
tented on  seven  pounds  a  week." 

He  himself  has  never  been  content  with  man  or 
machine  when  he  could  get  a  better  one. 

Northcliffe  is  one  of  the  few  publishers  who  not 
only  frankly  admits  a  mistake  but  profits  by  it.  His 
experience  with  the  Daily  Mirror  is  typical.  He  has 
always  believed  that  women  have  definite  economic 
rights.  He  has  not  only  given  them  the  largest 
possible  opportunities  on  his  newspapers  and  period- 
icals, but  has  made  one  of  them  a  director  of  the 
Amalgamated  Press,  the  company  which  publishes 
his  magazines. 

He  launched  the  Daily  Mirror  as  a  publication 
by  and  for  women,  and  it  hung  fire.  In  an  article 
entitled  "How  I  Lost  Five  Hundred  Thousand  Dol- 
lars" he  made  a  clean  breast  of  his  failure.  He 
said :  "I  had  for  many  years  a  theory  that  a  daily 
newspaper  for  women  was  in  urgent  request,  and 
I  started  one.  This  belief  cost  me  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  I  found  out  that  I  was  beaten. 
Women  do  not  want  a  daily  paper  of  their  own. 
It  is  another  instance  of  failures  made  by  mere 
man  in  diagnosing  women's  needs.  Some  people 
say  that  a  woman  never  really  knows  what  she 
wants.     She  didn't  want  the  Daily  Mirror." 

Northcliffe  then  converted  the  publication  into 


298  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

an  illustrated  daily  for  men  and  women  and  it  be- 
came a  best-seller — one  of  his  most  valuable  prop- 
erties. 

His  purchase  of  the  controlling  interest  in  the 
Times  was  a  brilliant  coi(.p — and  likewise  an  episode 
in  English  history,  for  the  reason  that  'The  Thun- 
derer," as  it  is  called,  is  part  and  parcel  of  British 
life.  Abraham  Lincoln  once  said  that  next  to  the 
Mississippi  River  the  London  Times  was  the  most 
powerful  thing  in  the  world.  When  it  was  an- 
nounced that  the  owner  of  the  two  near-"yellow" 
papers,  the  Daily  Mail  and  the  Evening  News,  had 
acquired  a  controlling  interest  in  the  most  staid 
and  conservative  of  newspapers,  Britain  was 
shocked  and  grieved.  The  country  stood  aghast  at 
the  profanation.  Here  was  high  crime  against  the 
sacred  traditions. 

What  happened?  Northcliffe  not  only  main- 
tained the  integrity  of  Times'  dignity  but  made  the 
paper  more  useful,  constructive,  and  interesting. 

With  the  Times,  the  various  British  and  Conti- 
nental editions  of  the  Daily  Mail,  the  Evening 
News,  the  Weekly  Despatch,  Northcliffe  wields  an 
almost  incomparable  influence.  Through  them  he 
can  reach  every  degree  of  English  society  from  pro- 
letariat to  prince.  No  wonder  he  has  built  up  a 
following  more  permanent  and  powerful  than  that 
of  any  statesman. 

These  battalions  of  print  would  be  futile  without 
a  definite  and  driving  policy.     In  shaping  this  pol- 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT       299 

icy  he  has  impressed  his  two  most  vivid  and  out- 
standing qualities — courage  and  foresight. 

It  takes  an  almost  spartan  heroism  to  fly  in  the 
face  of  British  opinion.  This  NorthcHffe  has  done 
repeatedly.  More  than  once — and  especially  in  the 
Kitchener,  Churchill  and  Asquith  assaults — he  de- 
fied both  fate  and  fortune.  His  life  has  often  been 
threatened.  During  the  shell  crisis  he  had  to  go 
about  with  a  bodyguard. 

Most  men  who  do  things  in  a  big  and  compre- 
hensive way  fly  some  motto  or  maxim  from  the 
mast-head  of  their  career.  It  usually  sums  up 
their  greatest  gift.  In  the  case  of  Northcliffe  you 
have  it  embraced  in  a  single  sentence  from  Pascal: 

"To  foresee  is  to  rule." 

Any  one  can  see  tendencies.  It  is  the  obvious 
thing.  But  to  see  to-day  what  everybody  will  ac- 
cept and  believe  to  be  true  six  months  or  a  year 
hence,  is  the  highest  expression  of  journalistic  gen- 
ius. This  is  exactly  what  Northcliffe  has  done  so 
many  times  that  his  whole  newspaper  life  is  a  long 
succession  of  predictions,  at  first  startling  and  sen- 
sational, but  almost  invariably  accepted  as  common- 
place in  time.     Let  me  illustrate. 

When  he  founded  the  Daily  Mail  he  sent  many 
correspondents  into  Germany.  He  began  then  his 
persistent  preachment  of  the  Teutonic  Menace  of 
the  inevitableness  of  the  great  European  war.  He 
based  his  forecast  on  solid  facts,  because  he  was 
maintaining  a  Secret  Service  in  Germany  and  Tur- 


30O  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

key — a.  Service  that,  maintained  continuously  since 
that  time,  has  provided  the  British  Government  with 
more  important  news  than  have  most  of  its  diplo- 
mats and  agents. 

Take  aviation.  In  1906  Northcliffe  saw  Santos 
Dumont  hop  one  hundred  feet  with  an  aeroplane. 
On  the  spot  he  became  convinced  not  only  that  fly- 
ing was  the  coming  sport,  but  that  ainnanship 
would  be  a  great  factor  in  future  warfare.  He 
offered  a  prize  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  the  first 
mechanical  flight  from  London  to  Manchester  in 
twenty-four  hours  with  not  more  than  two  stops. 
England  thought  he  was  insane.  The  offer  became 
a  jest  and  joke  of  press  and  public.  Punch,  for 
instance,  immediately  offered  ten  million  dollars  to 
any  one  who  could  fly  to  Mars ! 

One  of  Northcliffe's  staff  wrote  an  editorial  on 
Aviation,  saying  that  while  it  was  bound  to  come,  it 
would  be  long  delayed  because  all  progress  is  slow. 
The  next  morning  he  received  a  thumping  telegram 
from  his  chief,  saying:  "Stop  writing  such  rot. 
The  aeroplane  will  come  much  quicker  than  you 
think.     Be  optimistic  about  it." 

The  first  and  most  loyal  friend  that  Orville  and 
Wilbur  Wright  had  in  Europe  was  Northcliffe,  and 
he  aided  them  in  every  possible  way. 

Take  the  question  of  paper  supply.  Any  lay- 
man knows  that  paper  is  an  all-important  financial 
aspect  of  newspaper  and  periodical  enterprise.  The 
yearly  consumption  of  paper  by  all  the  Northcliffe 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT       301 

interests  is  greater  than  that  of  any  other  printing 
concern.  Owing  to  the  great  demand  on  the  for- 
ests of  the  United  States,  Canada,  and  Scandinavia, 
a  paper  famine — as  the  present  scarcity  proves — 
is  no  impossible  contingency.  With  his  extraordi- 
nary foresight  Northcliffe  reahsed  that  when  the 
inevitable  European  conflict  should  come,  Sweden 
would  likely  be  friendly  to  the  Germans  and  there- 
fore a  negligible  quantity  in  the  paper  situation. 
He  therefore  set  about  to  provide  his  own  paper. 

He  chose  the  oldest  of  the  British  dominions, 
Newfoundland,  where  he  secured  a  tract  of  three 
thousand  square  miles.  Twelve  years  ago  his  pio- 
neers laid  out  the  site  of  a  new  town  on  the  edge  of 
the  wilderness,  close  to  a  great  waterfall.  To-day 
that  giant  waterfall  has  been  harnessed,  a  vast 
plant  has  been  built,  paper  and  pulp  go  by  private 
steamship  lines  to  private  docks  and  more  mills  at 
Gravesend,  and  then  on  to  feed  the  hungry  press. 
It  is  an  unbroken  chain  that  begins  with  the  felled 
tree  in  the  snowy  wood  and  ends  with  the  finished 
periodical  in  the  hands  of  the  reader. 

That  verdant  site  wrested  from  the  primeval  for- 
est scarcely  a  decade  ago  is  now  Grand  Falls,  sec- 
ond city  of  Newfoundland  in  population  and  impor- 
tance: a  flourishing  community  with  churches, 
schools,  hospitals,  a  hotel,  bank,  and  a  club. 

All  these  evidences  of  Northcliffe's  foresight  pale 
before  the  real  dramatisation  of  it  which  came  with 
the  Great  War.    In  its  mighty  crucible  he  found 


302  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

the  great  opportunity  which  made  him  a  world- 
figure  and  estabHshed  him  as  Britain's  Unofficial 
War  Steward. 

It  took  him  just  three  days  to  see  what  most  of 
the  British  public  did  not  realise,  namely,  that  it 
would  be  a  long  war  and  that  the  country  was  abso- 
lutely unprepared.  He  saw,  too,  that  compulsory 
service  must  come.  With  his  fight  for  conscrip- 
tion he  struck  the  first  blow  at  complacent  official- 
dom. As  time  sped  on,  with  its  record  of  sacri- 
fice and  slaughter,  he  sensed  the  need  of  a  com- 
plete reorganisation  of  British  war  preparation  at 
home.  So  he  let  loose  the  full  broadside  of  all  his 
printed  power,  and  his  guns  have  thundered  ever 
since. 

You  already  know  what  he  did  in  the  matter  of 
Kitchener  and  the  shell  shortage:  you  have  heard 
of  the  crisis  which  he  brought  about  which  ended 
the  Asquith  regime  and  installed  Lloyd  George  as 
Prime  Minister.  This  revolution  was  probably 
wrought  by  a  group  of  newspapers.  It  ended  Gov- 
ernment by  compromise  and  delay. 

Strip  away  the  glamour  of  the  whole  Asquith 
upheaval  and  you  discover  that  it  was  merely  a 
translation  of  the  Northclifife  system  of  efficient 
team-work  into  terms  of  national  administration. 
Northclifife  demanded  a  small,  compact  Cabinet  that 
would  get  things  done. 

He  explained  his  idea  to  me  in  simple  and 
graphic    fashion.     We    were    walking    along    the 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT        303 

Kentish  coast  one  bleak  January  day.  Over- 
head whirred  a  giant  army  aeroplane;  far  out  at 
sea  a  grey  fleet  rode  at  anchor:  from  across  the 
Channel  came  the  rumble  of  the  guns  of  Flanders. 
I  asked  him  why  he  had  fought  so  hard  for  a  small 
Cabinet.  He  stopped  suddenly  and  said  in  that 
swift,  sharp  way  that  he  has: 

"Could  twenty-three  Lincolns  have  run  your 
Government  during  the  Civil  War?  Could  twenty- 
three  Grants  have  won  it?" 

"No,"  I  replied. 

"Well,"  he  snapped,  "there's  the  answer." 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  war  the  famous  coun- 
cil-room of  the  Times  has  been  in  reality  a  part  of 
the  British  Government.  "The  Conference,"  es- 
sentially an  American  newspaper  institution,  which 
Northcliffe  introduced  into  England,  is  held  every 
afternoon  at  a  quarter-to-five  o'clock  in  a  large, 
square,  high-pitched  chamber  in  the  Times  Build- 
ing, from  the  two  windows  of  which  you  can  see 
the  huge  grey  and  white  dome  of  St.  Paul's  loom- 
ing like  the  Jungfrau  over  the  Grindelwald  Valley. 
Around  an  octagonal  table  sit  the  men  who  made 
the  Times  and  who  also  make  history.  At  the 
head  sits  Geoffrey  Dawson,  the  editor,  with  North- 
cliffe in  the  third  seat  from  him.  It  is  really  a 
Cabinet  meeting,  for  often  the  Times  gets  news 
later  and  more  valuable  than  does  the  Government 
itself. 

From  this  room  stretches  the  long  finger  that 


304  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

touches  the  pulse  of  war-racked  Europe.  Policy 
is  shaped  not  only  for  the  paper,  but  for  Britain. 
Here  was  planned  the  famous  attack  on  Kitchener; 
here  developed  the  small  War  Cabinet  idea.  Out 
of  these  conferences  came  a  dozen  epochal  cam- 
paigns that  changed  the  whole  course  of  the  Brit- 
ish conduct  of  the  war — none  more  vital  than  the 
overthrow  of  the  Asquith  Administration. 

At  these  meetings,  especially  those  held  in  cru- 
cial hours,  you  see  Northcliffe  in  action.  It  is  a 
study  in  contrasts  to  watch  him.  He  crouches  in 
his  chair,  the  intent  listener,  or  leans  forward  as 
the  sharp,  pithy,  and  pointed  interrogator.  With 
a  single  question  at  an  expert  he  gets  at  the  heart 
of  the  whole  business. 

Every  great  national  crisis  needs  a  practical  man. 
England  found  him  in  Northcliffe. 

It  is  no  secret  that  Northcliffe's  judgment  of 
men  influenced  the  making  of  the  new  British  Cab- 
inet which  is  charged  with  the  task  of  winning  the 
war.  Largely  due  to  him,  it  includes  practical  men 
of  affairs.  War  is  the  hugest  business  in  the 
world,  but  it  is  a  business  nevertheless.  It  means 
merchandising  with  men  instead  of  goods.  Thanks 
to  Northcliffe,  you  find  such  Ministers  to-day  as 
Sir  Joseph  Maclay,  the  Shipping  Controller,  the 
one-time  captain  of  a  tramp  steamer;  Lord 
Rhondda,  Food  Controller,  who  left  the  coal 
throne  to  become  the  czar  of  the  stomach;  Sir 
Albert  Stanley,  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade, 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT       305 

a  self-made  traction  king,  who  learned  the  game  in 
American  systems. 

Northcliffe  might  have  had  any  post  in  the  gift 
of  the  Government,  but  he  has  steadily  refused. 
He  knows  that  to  take  office  would  weaken  his 
power.  Before  the  Asquith  reorganisation  he  was 
widely  mentioned  for  Food  Controller.  He  re- 
sented the  suggestion,  saying:  "I  could  never  af- 
ford to  work  with  twenty-three  men  (that  was  the 
original  number  of  Cabinet  Ministers)  who  are  al- 
ways late," 

Many  people  believe  that  Northcliffe  is  the 
power  behind  Lloyd  George:  that  the  Premier  is 
his  intimate  associate.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  is 
not  trtie.  Northcliffe  prefers  to  know  men  by  their 
work  rather  than  by  personal  contact.  It  is  part 
of  his  larger  policy  of  impersonal  journalism. 

Many  Americans — and  we  are  a  great  news- 
paper-consuming public — wonder  how  Northcliffe 
is  able  to  fashion  a  journal  into  a  national  force 
and  make  and  unmake  governments  with  it,  a  feat 
utterly  impossible  in  the  United  States.  Just  as 
there  is  no  mystery  about  Northcliffe  himself,  so 
there  is  no  magic  about  this  performance. 

He  is  able  to  make  his  newspapers  vital  and  far- 
reaching  agents  because,  first  of  all,  he  has  a  co- 
herent public,  speaking  a  common  language,  with 
a  common  heritage  and  ideal.  We,  on  the  other 
hand,  have  a  huge  melting  pot  of  a  nation  with 
many  conflicting  nationalities.     Northcliffe  is  able 


306  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

to  express  the  people's  mind,  to  visualise  it  and  to 
deliver  his  message  with  simplicity  and  reiteration. 
He  once  said  to  me:  "Napoleon  was  right  when 
he  declared  that  the  word  'repetition'  was  the  most 
useful  in  the  language.  You  cannot  repeat  any- 
thing too  often."  He  keeps  on  hammering  until 
he  gets  action. 

Another  reason  why  Northclifife  can  sound  a  note 
that  is  caught  up  throughout  the  Kingdom  is  that 
Great  Britain  is  small.  Experience  shows,  from 
Horace  Greeley's  day  down,  that  a  paper  pub- 
lished in  a  seaport  like  New  York  cannot  influence 
a  whole  vast  continent  that  stretches  ffom  the  At- 
lantic to  the  Pacific. 

This  brings  us  naturally  to  the  Northcliffe  jour- 
nalistic creed  which  invites  an  inevitable  compari- 
son with  the  American  school.  I  asked  him  to  de- 
fine his  idea  of  newspaper  control  and  he  said:  "I 
agree  with  the  elder  Bennett  who  said  that  no  man 
can  control  a  newspaper  unless  he  sleeps  on  the 
premises.  That  is  why  I  keep  a  bed  at  the 
Times." 

This  means  that  Northcliffe  is  incessantly  on  the 
job.  When  he  is  not  in  London  he  is  in  the  clos- 
est possible  communication  with  his  papers. 

He  believes  that  the  conduct  of  a  newspaper 
should  be  impersonal.  "When  a  newspaper  con- 
troller knows  a  great  many  people,"  he  says,  "he 
is  the  object  of  as  much  wire-pulling  as  the  Prime 
Minister.     The  more  people  you  know^  the  g^reater 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT        307 

becomes  the  difficulty  of  acting  impersonally.  I 
see  public  men  only  at  their  offices.  If  you  know 
only  a  few  people  you  can  strike  hard  at  many. 
There  is  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  Charles  A.  Dana's 
theory  that  the  newspaper  owner  must  be  some- 
thing of  a  hermit." 

Ask  Northcliffe  what  he  thinks  the  ideal  news- 
paper should  be  and  he  will  put  it  like  this: 

"Let  one  man — the  controller — be  in  final  au- 
thority; give  him  the  best  experts  obtainable  and 
let  them  alone.  A  newspaper  should  be  the  con- 
sensus of  the  best  brains  of  the  best  specialists-- 
the  clearing-house  of  the  quickest  and  most  ac- 
curate news  from  all  theatres  of  world  event:  it 
should  have  the  judgment  of  daily  consultation. 
Make  the  paper  pay  its  way  regardless  of  adver- 
tising, and  independent  of  everybody.  If  readers 
don't  like  it  they  can  burn  it.  If  it  does  not  suit 
advertisers,  they  can  stay  out." 

Seek  the  parallel  with  Northcliffe  in  the  United 
States  and  you  find  the  task  fruitless,  because  no 
American  publisher  or  editor  has  ever  wielded  such 
an  authority  as  his.  For  the  purpose  of  compari- 
son, however,  the  nearest  approach  is  William  Ran- 
dolph Hearst.  Why  has  Northcliffe  realised  all 
that  Hearst  desired? 

First  and  foremost,  Northcliffe  is  a  born  re- 
porter and  Hearst  is  not.  In  the  second  place,  one 
is  well  informed :  he  believes  in  a  policy  of  "Go  and 
See"   (he  has  been  to  the  front  ten  times),  while 


3o8  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

the  other  is  fundamentally  ignorant  of  large  af- 
fairs, and  seldom  takes  the  trouble  to  get  first-hand 
details  personally. 

The  Northcliffe  press  is  constructive,  while  the 
Hearst  papers  are  organs  of  unrest.  Northcliffe  is 
a  statesman  with  journalistic  instincts  who  pursues 
a  consistent  policy;  Hearst  is  a  manufacturer  of 
newspapers  with  a  policy  of  drift  or  destruction. 

But  the  largest  difference  perhaps  lies  in  the 
fact  that  Hearst  has  sought  political  office,  has  let 
himself  be  caught  up  in  the  whirlpool  of  bitter 
partisanship,  so  that  when  he  makes  an  appeal  it 
can  only  be  regarded  as  a  special  plea.  His  influ- 
ence therefore  is  greatly  lessened.  On  the  other 
hand  Northcliffe  has  never  sought  a  public  post: 
he  is  free  to  act  and  speak.  He  knows  that  the  mo- 
ment he  assumed  office  his  power  to  effect  large 
national  reforms  would  cease.  In  all  the  great 
campaigns  that  have  made  him  the  storm-centre  of 
violent  controversy,  he  had  disregarded  party 
lines:  it  has  always  been  a  question  of  "Efficiency 
and  Service  First." 

Independence  has  made  his  Insurgency  possible. 

Don't  delude  yourself  with  the  idea  that  North- 
cliffe's  masterful  march  is  along  a  rosy  path  of 
public  acclaim.  No  man  in  recent  years  has  been 
so  bitterly  arraigned.  He  is  stamped  as  "sensa- 
tionalist," "yellow  journalist,"  "scandaliser  of  pub- 
lic and  press  morals."  But  he  has  thrived  on  his 
enemies.     Fifty  per  cent  of  the  hostility  toward 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT        309 

him  is  directly  due  to  the  jealousy  of  his  competi- 
tors: twenty-five  to  the  prejudice  born  of  staid 
British  resentment  at  what  is  termed  his  violation 
of  newspaper  morality;  while  the  remaining  twen- 
ty-five per  cent  follows  the  wreaking  of  his  ter- 
rible power  on  those  that  have  crossed  his  path. 
Like  E.  H.  Harriman,  he  never  forgets  an  affront, 
never  forgives  a  wound.  He  is  as  sensitive  as  a 
woman  and  as  whimsical. 

And  now  for  the  real  Northcliffe  enigma.  The 
man  who  wields  the  greatest  unofficial  power  in 
Britain,  who  can  change  the  conduct  of  the  war, 
re-create  a  Cabinet,  and  make  the  fortune  of  artist 
or  author  with  the  stroke  of  a  pen,  is  personally 
the  least  known  of  all  the  English  men  of  mark. 
Go  behind  the  curtain  that  masks  him  and  you  find 
a  many-sided  individual.  I  have  seen  Morgan, 
Ryan,  Perkins,  Harriman — all  the  human  dyna- 
mos of  the  frenzied  powerplant  of  American  en- 
ergy at  work.  None  surpasses  Northcliffe  in  gal- 
vanic effort  or  in  concentration.  It  is  his  first  link 
with  them. 

He  is  big  of  bulk,  with  smooth,  mobile,  massive, 
yet  boyish  face,  not  unlike  Napoleon's,  and  with  the 
familiar  lock  of  hair  that  hangs  low  over  his  fore- 
head. His  eyes,  large  and  luminous,  leap  swiftly 
from  grave  to  gay.  His  looks  reflect  his  moods, 
for  he  is  a  multiple  personality,  as  tender  and  yield- 
ing in  repose  as  he  is  ruthless  and  unrelenting  in 
action.     Courage,    capacity,    imagination,    are    his 


3IO  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

heritage.  He  brings  his  friend  Cecil  Rhodes 
strongly  to  mind.  Both  Sons  of  Empire,  they  had 
a  kinship  of  vision,  a  community  of  achievement. 
Rhodes  thought  in  terms  of  continents:  North- 
cliffe's  perspective  is  tl;e  world. 

Like  every  man  who  has  achieved  a  career,  North- 
cliffe's  work  takes  precedence  over  all  else.  The 
only  time  he  forgets  it  or  is  away  from  it  is  when 
he  sleeps.  He  has  a  method  all  his  own,  because 
he  divides  the  day  into  two  scientific  halves.  He 
begins  his  labours  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning 
in  Summer,  and  at  six  in  the  Winter.  From  his 
bed  he  dictates  plans  and  policies.  Before  the 
average  Englishman  is  out  of  his  morning  tub, 
NorthclifTe  has  done  a  day's  work.  He  has  read 
all  his  own  newspapers  and  marked  them  with 
criticisms;  has  outHned  the  programme  for  his  eve- 
ning paper;  he  has  talked  over  the  telephone  with 
members  of  his  staff  and  picked  up  the  thread  of 
things  that  have  happened  through  the  night. 

Like  Harriman,  who  had  a  telephone  in  every 
room  of  his  house  including  the  bathroom,  North- 
cliffe  is  never  away  from  some  sort  of  swift  com- 
munication with  newspapers.  Once  I  was  motor- 
mg  with  him  to  one  of  his  country  places.  We  had 
scarcely  left  the  lights  of  London  behind  us  when 
he  suddenly  ordered  his  chauffeur  to  stop  at  the 
next  post-office. 

"There  is  something  I  must  telephone  to  the 
Times/'  he  said.     It  was  a  characteristic  act. 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT        311 

At  eleven  o'clock,  when  he  is  in  the  country  (and 
he  does  much  of  his  work  there),  he  knocks  off, 
and  plays  golf  until  luncheon.  Whenever  possi- 
ble he  sleeps  from  two  until  four.  After  that  he 
sees  people.  The  world  comes  to  him,  most  often 
to  that  historic  office  at  the  Times,  with  its  superb 
Georgian  marble  mantelpiece,  its  stately  panelled 
walls,  its  high  windows,  through  which  pulses  the 
roar  of  London,  I  have  known  him  to  receive  a 
score  of  people  in  a  single  afternoon,  yet  so  great 
is  his  concentration  that  every  visitor  believes  that 
his  business  is  the  one  absorbing  topic  in  North- 
cliffe's  mind. 

He  works  just  jas  he  talks  and  walks — swiftly 
and  eagerly.  Nothing  ruffles  him.  He  dictated 
his  book  "The  Rise  of  the  Daily  Mail"  in  the  gar- 
den at  Elmwood,  while  a  German  aeroplane  was 
dropping  bombs  in  the  neighbouring  town  of  Mar- 
gate. 

There  is  one  definite  rule  in  Northcliffe's  scheme 
of  life  that  the  overworked  American  millionaire 
may  well  heed.  Save  in  a  great  national  crisis, 
his  work  for  the  day  ends  when  the  time  for  din- 
ner begins.  No  guest  in  any  of  Northcliffe's  houses 
will  talk  "shop"  from  that  moment  on.  Then  you 
see  Northcliffe  the  Boy — the  dynamic  Peter  Pan 
who  will  never  grow  up! 

I  like  to  recall  an  evening  at  Elmwood,  not  the 
loveliest  of  his  country  places,  but  the  one  to  which 
he  is  most  attached  by  sentimental  ties,  because  he 


312  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

bought  it  out  of  his  first  large  earnings.  There 
were  only  a  few  of  us  down  there.  After  dinner 
Northcliffe  said:  "Let's  have  the  phonograph." 
He  stretched  himself  on  a  huge  couch,  puffed  away 
at  a  great  cigar  of  the  dreadnought  size  that  J.  P. 
Morgan  used  to  smoke,  and  luxuriated  in  Ameri- 
can rag-time  that  ranged  from  "Down  in  Tennes- 
see" to  "Alexander's  Rag-time  Band." 

I  started  to  tell  him  a  story  of  Irving  Berlin. 
He  stopped  me  and  said  smilingly:  "I  have  met 
him.  Isn't  it  extraordinary  that  he  should  write 
all  that  music  without  knowing  a  note?"  Here 
you  get  one  of  the  quick  and  unexpected  revela- 
tions of  Northcliffe's  amazing  fund  of  knowledge. 
He  has  met  nearly  everybody  worth  knowing,  and 
he  never  forgets.  Because  he  gives  much  in- 
formation he  receives  much.  He  is  the  type  of 
big  man  who  always  interviews  the  interviewer. 

When  you  go  about  the  various  Northcliffe  busi- 
ness establishments,  the  first  thing  that  strikes  you 
is  the  youth  of  the  men  in  high  places.  The  ed- 
itor of  the  Times  is  barely  forty:  before  the  war 
called  them,  directors  of  Northcliffe's  immense  in- 
terests were  in  their  early  twenties.  This  is  part 
of  the  Northclifife  system.  He  was  head  of  a 
large  business  at  twenty-two;  he  therefore  knows 
the  strength  and  resource  of  the  young  and  fruit- 
ful years.  The  first  two  questions  that  he  hurls 
at  any  applicant  for  service  with  him  are:  "How 
old  are  you?"  and  "What  can  you  do?" 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT        313 

Being  efficient  himself,  he  detests  incompe- 
tency. Sometimes  you  hear  it  said  that  Northcliffe 
sucks  people's  brains  dry  and  flings  them  aside.  If 
this  is  true  they  are  at  least  well  paid  during  the 
absorption  process,  for  he  pays  the  highest  jour- 
nalistic wage  in  the  world.  One  of  his  principal 
business  associates  gets  a  salary  as  large  as  that  of 
the  president  of  the  United  States,  as  much  as 
Hearst  pays  Arthur  Brisbane.  "Make  your  em- 
ployes contented,"  is  his  rule.  "Adequate  compen- 
sation is  the  key  to  it.  It  is  a  good  investment." 
Like  most  successful  employers,  he  is  deeply  con- 
cerned about  his  people.  On  busy  mornings  when 
it  is  impossible  for  him  to  read  all  of  his  immense 
mail,  I  have  heard  him  say:  "Run  through  it 
quickly  and  see  if  there  are  any  letters  from  my 
workpeople."     They  always  have  his  eye. 

The  net  result  is  a  loyal  organisation  and  a  lack 
of  the  "office  politics"  so  common  in  many  Amer- 
ican newspaper  establishments. 

Whether  it  is  the  Irish  in  him  or  not,  Northcliflfe 
is  impulsive  and  volatile,  very  human  and  very 
kindly.  Nor  is  he  without  a  keen  sense  of  hu- 
mour. 

He  wanted  a  taxi  at  the  Times  office.  When  he 
reached  the  street  the  doorman  told  him  it  was  im- 
possible to  get  one,  but  that  he  had  secured  a  han- 
som. 

"Where  shall  I  go,  my  Lord  ?"  asked  the  cabby. 

"To  the  nearest  taxi  stand,"  said  Northcliffe. 


314  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

Like  most  busy  and  successful  men,  Northcliffe 
always  finds  time  for  everything.  He  is  the  per- 
sonification of  punctuality.  When  he  says  he  will 
come  for  you  it  means  that  he  will  be  there  when 
the  clock  is  striking  the  hour. 

His  dominant  personal  trait  is  action.  He  is  sel- 
dom in  the  same  place  for  two  consecutive  days. 
This  does  not  mean  that  he  is  trying  to  hide,  but 
oddly  enough  he  finds  relaxation  in  movement.  In 
one  week  I  was  with  him  at  four  different  estab- 
lishments, three  in  the  country  that  ranged  from 
what  he  calls  a  "sleeping-box"  perched  high  on  a 
lovely  hill  in  Surrey,  and  the  only  place  perhaps 
where  he  gets  complete  seclusion  (he  calls  it  "No 
Hall — Nowhere"),  to  Sutton  Place,  a  noble  estate 
where  Henry  VIII.,  Queen  Elizabeth  and  Cardinal 
Wolsey  often  sojourned. 

No  living  Englishman  knows  or  understands  us 
so  well.  He  talks  to  Americans  in  terms  of  Ameri- 
ca. When  he  wants  to  illustrate  society,  for  ex- 
ample, he  employs  Fifth  Avenue  and  Newport,  not 
Belgrave  Square  and  Mayfair;  he  links  the  Bow- 
ery with  Whitechapel;  Wall  Street  with  Lombard. 
He  is  first-aid  to  the  hungry  oversea  writers;  their 
best  friend  at  court.  When  the  real  story  of  how 
the  British  cause  was  brought  home  to  the  Ameri- 
can reading  public  is  told,  it  will  be  found  that 
Northcliffe's  service  to  our  writing  men  and  women 
has  aided  more  than  nearly  all  the  official  agencies 
combined. 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT        315 

Northcliffe  is  intelligent  enough  not  to  be  a  strong 
believer  in  much  of  the  "Hands  Across  the  Seas" 
talk.  He  considers  that  the  chief  community  of 
ideals  between  the  Britisher  and  the  American  lies 
in  their  mutual  love  of  fair  play,  their  adherence 
to  principles  of  freedom  achieved  in  the  English 
Revolution  of  1640  and  the  American  Revolution 
of  1776. 

I  happened  to 'be  with  Northcliffe  during  those 
stirring  days  when  Germany  launched  her  final  pro- 
gramme of  submarine  frightfulness  and  when  we 
broke  with  the  Kaiser.  We  talked  much  of  the 
great  need  of  preparedness  in  general;  of  our  own 
lack  of  readiness  in  particular.  His  remarks  were 
significant. 

"The  United  States  has  been  an  overrich  cor- 
poration that  invited  trouble  among  hungry  com- 
petitors," he  said.  "Chief  among  them  is  Germany. 
If  England  had  had  a  mild  military  insurance  there 
would  have  been  no  war.  We  were  like  you,  eter- 
nally talking  about  money,  business  or  territorial 
expansion.  The  Germans  fell  upon  us.  The  curious 
fact  about  life  is  that  the  richer  people  become  the 
more  they  preach  peace.  It  pleases  them  and  their 
pockets.  We  were  all  purse  and  no  fist. 

"Your  position  was  even  worse  because,  much  to 
the  aimoyance  of  the  multitude,  a  certain  number 
among  us  did  insist  upon  a  modern  navy,  although 
some  of  our  richest  people,  as  well  as  those  most 
politically  strong,  advocated  a  reduction  in  the  fleet. 


3i6  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 

"The  war  has  shown  that  expert  officers  can  soon 
train  mobs  into  armies,  provided  that  armies  may 
come  in  the  air  and  may  one  day  come  under  the 
water.  If,  in  the  early  days  of  the  war,  the  Ger- 
mans had  had  the  brains  to  land  fifty  thousand 
troops  from  aeroplane  on  England,  and  dig  them- 
selves in  instead  of  fooling  with  gas-bag  Zeppelins 
we  should  have  had  a  trouble  very  different  to 
eradicate. 

"If  we  had  spent  as  much  on  the  right  kind  of 
preparedness  each  year  as  we  now  spend  in  two 
weeks  of  the  war  (our  daily  expenditure  is  thirty- 
five  million  dollars)  this  particular  war  could  not 
have  happened!" 

In  June,  191 7,  America  was  startled  by  the  news 
that  Northcliffe  had  landed  in  New  York  as  head 
of  the  British  War  Mission  to  the  United  States. 
For  obvious  reasons  there  had  been  no  advance 
notice  of  his  coming.  He  accepted  the  commission, 
made  ready  to  come  and  sailed  in  less  than  three 
days.     It  was  a  characteristic  performance. 

I  had  the  pleasure  of  making  that  journey  with 
him.  The  days  and  nights  that  we  walked  the  decks 
of  the  St.  Paul  gave  me  a  fresh  insight  into  his 
character ;  opened  up  a  whole  new  vista  of  his  men- 
tal resource.  On  that  trip  there  were  many  evi- 
dences of  his  keen  interest  in  things  and  people. 
In  war  time  the  Cook's  tourist  is  mercifully  miss- 
ing from  passenger  lists.  When  you  range  the 
seas  these  days  you  are  apt  to  find  that  your  ship- 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT        317 

mates  are  men  and  women  who  have  done  things 
or  who  are  going  out  to  do  things.  They  have 
definite  objects.  We  had  an  extraordinarily  inter- 
esting group.  It  included  diplomats  and  soldiers 
coming  back  from  the  lands  where  we  had  broken 
off  relations;  aviators,  historians,  naturalists,  au- 
thors and  plain  business  men — all  representing  a 
varied  and  fascinating  world  experience.  By  the 
time  we  reached  Sandy  Hook  Northcliffe  knew  the 
story  of  all  their  lives.  More  than  one  of  my  fel- 
low passengers  remarked  to  me  "I  had  no  idea 
that  Lord  Northcliffe  was  so  simple  and  so  accessi- 
ble." 

Northcliffe  arrived  in  America  at  a  moment 
when  his  peculiar  talents  and  experience  could  be 
capitalised  to  the  greatest  possible  extent.  He  found 
New  York  reeking  with  the  most  torrid  heat  she 
had  known  in  many  summers,  yet  he  plunged  into 
his  work  with  an  energy  that,  considering  the 
weather,  was  well-nigh  incredible.  He  saw  half 
a  dozen  Missions  representing  the  most  important 
British  war  activities  without  a  head.  He  co-ordi- 
nated them  into  a  mobile  and  effective  unit  that 
by  reason  of  his  vital  presence  and  dynamic  per- 
sonality dedicated  themselves  to  a  redoubled  effort. 

He  was  not  content  with  this.  America  was 
struggling  with  her  first  war  problems,  not  the  least 
of  which  was  the  creation  of  a  vast  air  fleet.  At 
the  invitation  of  the  American  Aircraft  Production 
Board  he  advised  with  our  aeroplane  builders;  vis- 


3i8  THE  BUSINESS  OF  WAR 


ited  the  aviation  camps,  talked  to  an  army  of  avia- 
tors in  the  making,  leaving  everywhere  the  impress 
of  an  accurate  technical  knowledge  gained  through 
long  study  of  this  all-important  subject  and  wide 
experience  at  the  front. 

When  the  great  British  Recruiting  Campaign 
was  inaugurated  in  New  York  it  was  Northcliffe 
who  made  the  principal  appeal  at  a  memorable 
meeting  held  at  Madison  Square  Garden.  When 
Canada  launched  her  great  Red  Cross  drive  it  was 
Northcliffe  who  made  a  special  trip  to  Toronto 
and  in  a  keynote  speech  rallied  millions  of  dollars 
to  the  Great  Cause.  So  it  went.  His  whole  Ameri- 
can trip  was  one  manifestation  of  energy.  He  aver- 
aged one  hundred  miles  of  travel  a  day  during  the 
three  months  of  his  stay.  The  United  States  saw 
him  then  as  he  really  was — an  ardent  patriot  and  a 
many-sided  person  who  had  left  comfort  and  ease 
at  home  to  brave  the  perils  of  a  submarine-infested 
sea  and  to  spend  five  months  of  incessant  action 
amid  the  most  uncomfortable  physical  conditions. 

Two  important  events  signalised  his  return  to 
England.  One  was  his  elevation  to  be  a  Viscount; 
the  other  was  his  remarkable  letter  to  Lloyd  George, 
declining  the  Air  Ministry.  The  British  Premier 
was  very  eager  that  he  should  accept  the  post  upon 
which  a  large  part  of  the  future  conduct  of  the 
war  depends.  I  happen  to  know  that  this  offer 
made  a  very  strong  appeal  to  him  in  view  of  his 
long  study  of  the  whole  aviation  problem.     But 


NORTHCLIFFE— INSURGENT        319 

Northcliffe  felt  then,  as  he  has  felt  all  through  his 
tempestuous  life,  that  to  accept  an  official  post 
would  gag  his  criticism  of  public  men  and  public 
affairs.  The  post  went  to  his  no  less  energetic 
brother.  Lord  Rothermere. 

What  does  the  future  hold  for  Northcliffe?  He 
has  played  such  an  important  part  in  the  drama 
of  the  war  that  he  must  inevitably  loom  large  in 
the  vast  readjustment  of  peace.  Whatever  he  may 
do,  you  may  be  sure  of  one  thing:  he  will  be  the 
Statesman-Journalist,  an  Insurgent  always. 


THE  END 


D 


i 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


«.. 


M33 


Santa  Barbara  Public  Library 

Serving  Santa  Barbara 
City  and  County 

1.  The  due  date  of  this  book  is  stamped  on 
this  date  due  card  inserted  in  the  pocket. 

2.  Books  other  than  1  week  books,  and  spe- 
cial loans  may  be  renewed  for  an  additional  loan 
period. 

3.  Books  overdue  are  subject  to  a  per  diem 
fine,  including  Sundays  and  holidays. 

4.  Failure  to  pay  fine  or  defacement  and  mut- 
ilation of  books  will  exclude  borrowers  from  the 
privileges  of  the  Library. 

5.  Books  and  other  printed  material  of  the 
Library  are  protected  by  law  under  Calif.  Educ. 
Code.  Sec.  23321-22;  Calif.  Penal  Code,  Sec.  469b. 

6.  Books  may  be  reserved,   and  inter- 
loan  privileges  are  available. 

Telephone  2-7653 


